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.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
At least 35 people were killed and dozens more injured when a man plowed his car into pedestrians exercising around a sports center in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai on Monday night. Footage showing bodies lying on the pavement appeared on social media in the hours after the crash, but had vanished by early Tuesday morning, and local police reported only “injuries.” It took officials nearly 24 hours to reveal that dozens had died — in one of the country’s deadliest incidents in years. China heavily monitors social media platforms, where it is common for words and topics deemed
Typhoon Usagi yesterday had weakened into a tropical storm, but a land warning issued by the Central Weather Administration (CWA) was still in effect in four areas in southern Taiwan. As of 5pm yesterday, Tropical Storm Usagi was over waters 120km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost tip of Taiwan proper, and was moving north at 9kph, CWA data showed. The storm was expected to veer northeast later yesterday. It had maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126kph, the data showed. The CWA urged residents of Kaohsiung, Pingtung County, Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) to remain alert to
RSS