Countries Ranked In Terms of Internet Freedom

msum sent in a report that ranks 37 nations around the would in terms of their internet freedom. Estonia takes gold, the US silver, and Bahrain comes in last.

Comments

Re-post

[Pikkebaas]

Isn't this just a repost of http://slashdot.org/story/11/04/21/1946253/Australia-Ranked-Fourth-In-Internet-Freedom?

Re:Re-post

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes... but THIS article is about Estonia being 1st, while THAT article was about Australia being 4th. Totally different, see?

Re:Re-post

[BrokenHalo]

It is indeed a repost, but it goes further even than that. In TFA, which takes the form of an interview, the response to the first question begins:

Robert Guerra: Well, this project is actually the second report.

Sounds like someone might have been nobbled. But in any case, describing countries such as the US or Australia as "free" - when citizens are free to view whatever content they want so long as they have no objection to so-called "Intelligence" services spying on them and taking whatever action they see fit - seems a bit hollow to me.

Re:Re-post

[Anonymous Coward]

So far we know that Australia is 4th, Estonia 1sr, US 2nd, the place of Bahrain is 37.
As nobody RTFA here, we need quite a few reposts to complete the list. I have full trust in CmdrTaco, he was very good in dupes so far, maybe he can do even better...

Bahrain?

[chemicaldave]

You mean Iran? Did you even read TFA?

And not even a link to the original report? It's really not hard to find.

Re:Bahrain?

[chemicaldave]

And here is the report itself.

Sorry state of affairs

[Anonymous Coward]

When Germany places third in Internet Freedom, then the bar must be pretty low. Germany censors web sites. Germany recorded everyone's connection meta data about phone calls and internet connections. Germany makes people who provide open wireless LAN access take the fall for crimes which are committed by other people via that WLAN. In Germany, blog operators are liable for comments if they fail to perform a fair amount of editorial supervision. Germany requires every web site which is written for a public audience to list an email address and a phone number of the person who takes responsibility for the content.

Just like in Independance Day

[rikkards]

Canada is nowhere to be seen.

Re:What?

[arth1]

"the US silver"

This enough is proof how bogus this ranking is.

I think they only look at government suppression, not government sanctioned corporate suppression, nor government surveillance.
Also keep in mind that this is a US company, who would be sawing off the branch they sat on if they said that their internet was suppressed.

Re:Larry Ellison: Americas Greediest CEO

[Millennium]

So just because he's rich means he doesn't have the right to be treated fairly by the tax board?

Re:What?

[Haedrian]

Right, so basically the US is the second most internet-free country, from a list of countries.

Hold the presses.

I'm the richest man in the world if we only take homeless people as my 'world'.

Re:United States, seriously?

[Curunir_wolf]

US officials can seize your domain without a court order while in Iran or China, they would just block you! Remember the massive domain seizure that ended up being wrong?

Freedom? That's strictly up for debate!

Well considering that the US can seize your domain regardless of what country is hosting your content, that ability probably shouldn't even be considered, as it is the same everywhere.

Re:United States, seriously?

[_0xd0ad]

Every domain name ultimately comes from ICANN, which is located in California, and therefore if the US government tells them that they can't sell (well, rent) a domain to someone, they can't. That is one of the limitations of any centralized service: it has to abide by the laws under whose jurisdiction it operates. However, domain names are luxuries: any properly-configured* website can be accessed by its IP address rather than its domain name, and if your server is located outside the US, they can't actually shut you down unless your local authorities concur. You just won't have an easy-to-remember URL if they revoke your domain name.

*Not to imply that websites that can't are improperly configured, per se, only that it's possible to configure one properly such that it can be. Some fairly significant changes might have to be made... for instance, servers that host more than one domain would have to move everything to a single tree (e.g. 1.1.1.1/~site1/...).

Re:Gold goes to...

[Freultwah]

Really, knowing about all the countries in the world is good thing, but other than trivia value it's not that useful in your day to day life.

It's not as if anyone is requiring you to name every country's capital, population, main cities, GDP per capita etc. Just knowing a country exists and approximately in what part of the world is a good thing, especially when you happen to meet somebody from that country or have to do business with it. It also comes in handy when planning a trip. More, it can help you avoid looking like complete arse. ("Oh, Estonia, I thought you just mispronounced Australia. Yes, Estonia... It's somewhere in Africa, between China and Paris, yes?" — Actual story.) I am sure you can come up with a few other good ideas how to use knowledge to your benefit.

Not a single scandinavian country

[Lord of the Fries]

You hear about the zeal for progressive freedoms in the Scandinavian countries from time to time it seems to me. Things like the Pirate party in Sweden. And Iceland wanting to make a free press safehouse out of its country. And DVD Jon in Norway. I was kinda shocked that none of Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, or Finland was in this report. Kind of a stupid report IMO.