Where, Why & How Does Internet Censorship Work?: A Visual Map

We all like talking about internet censorship and the serious threat it poses to free speech and human knowledge. But rarely do we speak in broad terms about how it actually works, and why countries around the world are doing it. Fortunately these data visualizations, which draw from the OpenNet Initiative and Reporters Without Borders, explain all that and more.

Our mouths hung agape last week when Egypt became the first government in history to go one step further and commit full-on internet seppuku. But seeing how so many countries hang smack dab in the middle of a venn diagram showing reasons why governments censor, it’s easier to see how much of a bother something like the internet must be when you’re an authoritarian entity trying to preserve archaic cultural beliefs, smother political dissent and protect against info leaks that could threaten national security.

The censorship itself seems to be focused overwhelmingly on outlets of individual opinion, with blogs taking up a whopping 20% of all content suppressed. Although that’s probably due in large part to China, whose massive-scale censorship activities eclipse those of any other nation on the planet.

Reasons why governments censor the internet

Mechanisms of government control of the internet

See the whole thing here