Taiwan has the freest Internet in Asia and it ranks sixth globally, according to Freedom House’s latest ranking published on Wednesday, with China taking the last place for the ninth year in a row.
The Freedom on the Net 2023 report evaluated online freedoms based on obstacles to access, content limitations and breaches of user rights, the organization said in a news release on its Web site.
Seventy countries and Internet environments that encompass 89 percent of the world’s Internet users were included, it said.
Photo: Bloomberg
An Internet freedom score of more than 70 indicates the country or territory is “free,” a score of 40 to 70 indicates the place is “partly free,” and a score of less than 40 means the country is “unfree,” the human rights watchdog said.
The country with the world’s freest Internet environment is Iceland with a score of 94, followed by Estonia with 93, Canada with 88 and Costa Rica with 85, it said.
Taiwan scored 78 points, behind the UK with 79, but ahead of Germany and Japan with scores of 77, it said.
The report struck a pessimistic tone, stating that Internet freedoms are under attack globally and that scores have generally declined, adding that the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) “threatens to supercharge online disinformation campaigns.”
AI-based tools that generate deepfake videos, images and texts were utilized in no fewer than 16 countries by individuals, entities and governments, including former Pakistani prime minster Imran Khan, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former US president Donald Trump, it said.
China, as one of the world’s “most technically sophisticated authoritarian regimes,” is currently engaged in AI research and development that seeks to “weaponize” the technology into “force multipliers for censorship,” the organization said.
Beijing employs chatbots to control the flow of information on social media and deliberately utilizes precensored content in training algorithms to ensure the content they generate does not deviate from official narratives, it said.
“Chatbots produced by China-based companies have refused to engage with user prompts on sensitive subjects like Tiananmen Square and have parroted CCP [Chinese Communist Party] claims about Taiwan,” Freedom House said.
In addition, China regulators ordered tech companies Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) and Ant Group Co (螞蟻集團) to exclude ChatGPT from their services as part of the effort to insulate Chinese users from content that had not been filtered by Beijing, the organization said.
Beijing routinely conducted “harsh crackdowns” on Internet-based speech, and Chinese nationals have been jailed for expressing their views online, it said.
Anti-corruption advocate Xu Zhiyong (許志永) was sentenced to 14 years in prison in April, the report said.
However, Chinese citizens remained undaunted by the ramped-up digital censorship, the organization said, adding that protests over a deadly fire in Urumqi, where toll was reportedly worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, triggered a nationwide policy reversal.
“People employed creative language on social media to evade censors, launching hashtags like ‘A4’ and ‘white paper exercise’ to evoke the blank sheets of paper that demonstrators raised to protest the extremity of CCP censorship,” it said.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
CHIP EXCEPTION: An official said that an exception for Taiwanese semiconductors would have a limited effect, as most are packaged in third nations before being sold The Executive Yuan yesterday decried US President Donald Trump’s 32 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods announced hours earlier as “unfair,” saying it would lodge a representation with Washington. The Cabinet in a statement described the pledged US tariffs, expected to take effect on Wednesday next week, as “deeply unreasonable” and “highly regrettable.” Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said that the government would “lodge a solemn representation” with the US Trade Representative and continue negotiating with Washington to “ensure the interests of our nation and industries.” Trump at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday announced a 10 percent baseline tariff on most goods
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS