Welcome to the Watched Web: Ranking Internet Surveillance by Country

For a long time, the internet felt like an open, free-for-all space. Imperfect, but largely accessible to anyone with a connection. That assumption is starting to change. Age-verification requirements, platform restrictions, and region-based access rules are reshaping how people experience the web. Services that once worked everywhere now depend on where you live, how you verify your identity, or what local regulations require.

In many parts of the world, this kind of controlled internet has existed for years. Governments block platforms, filter search results, and monitor online communication. This isn’t a distant scenario. It’s already a reality for millions of people. And increasingly, the idea of a free and open internet is no longer guaranteed.

Why Surveil the Internet?

Internet surveillance is often introduced in the name of protection. Governments around the world argue that monitoring online spaces helps shield children from harmful content, prevent crime, and reduce digital risks. Age-verification systems, identity checks, and content monitoring are presented as practical, reasonable, and politically neutral tools for making the internet safer.

But these measures do more than protect minors: they also expand how governments and institutions oversee digital participation.

Across the United Kingdom, several European countries, nearly half of U.S. states, and many other parts of the world, online safety laws now require platforms to verify users’ ages or identities before allowing access to certain content. What was once an open system based largely on trust is gradually becoming one where access depends on verification. Instead of investigating wrongdoing after it happens, systems are increasingly designed to identify users in advance.

Supporters argue that surveillance helps maintain safety and accountability online. Critics warn that once identity checks and monitoring become part of everyday internet use, surveillance ceases to be an exceptional tool and becomes built into the internet’s infrastructure.

The experience of the internet now varies widely depending on where you live. In many democratic countries, the internet remains relatively open, though new regulations are beginning to reshape access. Elsewhere, governments already block platforms, filter information, and monitor online communication as a routine part of governance.

The difference is not whether surveillance exists; it’s why and how it is used. And right now, its normalization is happening faster than most people realize.

Regional Rankings of Online Freedom

To understand how internet surveillance and access restrictions vary around the world, it helps to look at the data. The Freedom on the Net 2025 report by Freedom House tracks how governments monitor, filter, and control online activity across different countries. The report evaluates levels of internet freedom globally, showing how digital rights differ not just between individual nations, but across entire regions.

Here’s how countries compare across geographical regions:

Europe & Eurasia

Countries such as Iceland (94/100), Estonia (91/100), and the Netherlands (84/100) rank highest in the region. Also, it’s important to note that these countries (as of February 2026) haven’t initiated any bans on social media for young people.

Countries such as Hungary (69/100), Serbia (67/100), and Turkey (31/100) rank lowest in the region. Turkey, for instance, recently introduced laws to ban young people from social media. As an adult, you may think you’re off the hook, but you’re wrong. In 2024, Turkey blocked the social media platform Instagram for nine days during political unrest. Will it happen again? Most likely.

Let’s address the elephant in the room: both Belarus (20/100) and Russia (17/100) are scraping the barrel when it comes to online freedom. Most foreign social media apps and websites are either blocked or heavily restricted, VPN use is frowned upon, and people have to be careful about what they’re saying on the platforms that are still allowed.

Africa & Middle East

South Africa (73/100) is the most online-free country within these regions. Ghana (64/100), Zambia (62/100), Malawi (61/100), and Lebanon (50/100) aren’t that far behind. The United Arab Emirates may be all sparkly and modern, but its low internet freedom score, 28/100, really puts things in a different perspective.

At the very bottom of the region’s ranking is Iran (13/100). At the beginning of 2025, the Iranian government shut down the country’s internet connection as protests erupted across the country, severing not just connections to the outside world but even Iran's own domestic network. 

North and South Americas

I’ll admit a personal bias – to my surprise, Canada (85/100) and the United States (73/100) weren’t as high up on the list as I expected. A round of applause to Chile (87/100) and Costa Rica (86/100), both of which rank highest in the region.

It won’t surprise anybody to learn that Venezuela (26/100) and Cuba (21/100) were ranked lowest. Venezuela has a record of arbitrarily detaining people for expressing perceived dissent on social media or in conversations on WhatsApp. In 2024, Cuban independent journalists, activists, and other civilians experienced targeted restrictions on their internet connectivity.

Asia & The Pacific

Taiwan (79/100) and Japan (78/100) are ranked highest in the region. They’re closely followed by Australia (75/100), which introduced strict social media bans for Australian kids younger than 15, resulting in age verification requirements for everyone else.

And finally, Myanmar and China share the lowest possible ranking: 9/100 points in the year’s report. According to Freedom House, the people of China have faced the world’s worst conditions for internet freedom for over a decade. 

We can’t discuss Asia without mentioning the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, and its obscene lack of all types of freedom, including online freedom. The overwhelming majority of the country’s people have no access to the internet. Only a select few are awarded this privilege, usually for propaganda purposes, like those North Korean influencers you may have encountered on YouTube or TikTok.

Surveillance Isn’t Evenly Distributed

Most of what we know about how governments monitor and restrict online activity comes from organizations like Freedom House, journalists, and independent researchers who document censorship, shutdowns, arrests over online speech, and surveillance systems around the world.

Their reporting shows a clear pattern: Internet surveillance is not experienced equally. Where you live still determines how much privacy you have, what information you can access, and what you can safely say online.

For some people, surveillance means targeted ads and data tracking. For others, it means blocked platforms, filtered news, or real consequences for online speech. These differences are measurable and growing.

What’s more concerning is how quickly the boundaries can shift. Countries that score well today are experimenting with age verification, content controls, and broader monitoring powers. Often with good intentions. Sometimes with unclear limits. History shows that once surveillance infrastructure exists, it rarely shrinks.

That’s why rankings like these matter. Not as a competition, but as an early warning system. The internet you experience isn’t guaranteed. It’s shaped by policy, technology, and power.

And once openness is lost, it’s difficult to rebuild.