Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Peru and Suriname are the countries with the greatest internet freedom in South America, according to a survey by cybersecurity firm Comparitech.
These countries have an internet restriction level of 9% (1 criterion out of 11) because they only limit the use of torrent sites, a sharing technology that allows very large files to be downloaded quickly, but which has a high traffic of pirated content and viruses. . . Brazil has restrictions of 18% (2/11) because, in addition to restricting torrents, it also limits certain voice technologies on the Internet.
The Comparitech survey analyzes the degree of digital freedom in 175 countries, taking into account 11 criteria: restriction of torrent sites, blocking or deletion of torrent sites, restriction of pornography, blocking of pornography, restriction of political content, heavy censorship political content, restriction of social networks, blocking of social networks, restriction of VPNs (private network that allows you to disguise your online identity), blocking of VPNs, restriction of messaging and VoIP applications (voice transmission over the Internet, such as Skype ).
Topping the list of countries with the most violations of Internet freedoms are the usual ones: North Korea and China. These two countries fall under 11 of the 11 restrictions mapped by Comparitech.
“There is nothing these two countries do not strongly censor, given their enormous control over the entire Internet,” the report said. Users cannot access Western social networks, watch pornography, or use torrents or VPNs, although some users do manage to hack out of state control.
And all political digital content is censored and influenced by the government. “They also block messaging apps from overseas, forcing residents to use ones that were created in the country (and are likely controlled), like WeChat in China.” Unlike WhatsApp, WeChat does not have end-to-end encryption and has “backdoors” that allow third parties to access messages.
Iran comes next on the list of countries with the most restrictions on the Internet, with 10 out of 11 categories. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are blocked, in addition to several messaging and VPN apps. Next come Belarus, Qatar, Syria, Thailand, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.
In South America, the worst country in terms of Internet freedoms is Venezuela (5/11), followed by Ecuador and Guyana (with 3/11). Political content is restricted in half of the region’s 12 countries and heavily censored by the Nicolás Maduro regime, which also restricts the use of social media. The investigation cites as a possible restriction in Brazil the false information bill, which even provided for the traceability of messages on WhatsApp.