Taiwan ranked fifth in Internet freedom worldwide and first in Asia, while China remained at the bottom of the list, an annual report released yesterday by the US nonprofit organization Freedom House said.
Topping this year’s Freedom on the Net report were Iceland, Estonia, Costa Rica and Canada, while Taiwan and the UK tied for fifth during the one-year period that ended in May.
Taiwan retained the same ranking as last year in the Freedom House survey and analysis that ranks countries based on its assessment of obstacles to Internet access, limits on content and breaches of user rights.
Photo from the 2022 Freedom House Freedom on the Net report
Taiwan is an example of how the private sector can work with civil society, government entities and academia to design innovative responses to online danger, the report said.
In Taiwan, which faces a barrage of disinformation that can be traced to China, Japan-based messaging application Line worked with civic groups to develop a tool for users to report false information trending on its platform, the report said.
The government launched a similar coordination effort following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, aiming to track war-related disinformation emanating from China, Freedom House said.
On the other end of the spectrum, China was listed as the worst abuser of Internet freedom for the eighth consecutive year, below Iran and Myanmar.
Internet censorship in China intensified during the Beijing Olympics and after Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai (彭帥) accused a high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official of sexual assault, Freedom House said.
The Chinese government has continued to tighten its control over the nation’s booming technology sector, adopting among other measures new rules that require platforms to use their algorithm to promote CCP ideology, the report said.
For this year’s report, Freedom House surveyed 70 countries, which account for 89 percent of the world’s Internet users, and it ranked 17 as “free,” including Taiwan and Japan, while 32 were rated as “partly free” and 21 as “not free.”
Global Internet freedom slid for the 12th consecutive year, with the sharpest downgrades documented in Russia, Myanmar, Sudan and Libya, the report said.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin dramatically intensified its ongoing efforts to suppress domestic dissent and accelerated the closure or exile of the country’s remaining independent media outlets, it said.
In at least 53 countries, users faced legal repercussions for expressing themselves online, which often led to draconian prison terms, said Freedom House, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights.
However, Internet freedom improved in a record 26 countries, the report said.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS