In Germany, factors including criminal prosecutions for memes about politicians, increased self-censorship due in part to threats from far-right actors, and attacks by hackers with ties to the Russian state contributed to a 3-point drop in the country’s internet freedom score.
Globally, the internet freedom declined for the 15th consecutive year. Kenya (−6), Venezuela (−4), and Georgia (−4) experienced the year’s most severe declines on the report’s 100-point scale. Bangladesh (+5) earned the year’s strongest improvement.
China and Myanmar, each with a total score of 9, remained the world’s worst environments for internet freedom.
Iceland (94) held its place as the freest online environment, followed by Estonia (91), falling scores also for Serbia and Nicaragua.
including criminal prosecutions for memes about politicians,
It’s worth mentioning that Germany has strong laws against defamation etc, compared to US for example. There’s various freedoms as well, but from publishing personal criticism into personal insults, in some aspects, it’s significantly different. It’s to protect people from unwarranted public humiliation and hate speech. But at times, it can be weaponized as well.
To provide a bit more content on the study by Freedom House a brief summary:
[Edit to include the link.]
It’s worth mentioning that Germany has strong laws against defamation etc, compared to US for example. There’s various freedoms as well, but from publishing personal criticism into personal insults, in some aspects, it’s significantly different. It’s to protect people from unwarranted public humiliation and hate speech. But at times, it can be weaponized as well.