The internet is a great invention, allowing for research, communication, networking, jobs, development and much, much more. Over the years since its launch, it has grown to become something that we, as humans, often cannot live without. That’s both a thrill and quite scary at the same time – especially where the younger generation are concerned. Yet, while some countries have fully embraced the internet, others have outrightly banned some or all of it.
A study has been published by the Comparitech.com website though, which ranks countries on how much censorship they have over the internet for citizens residing there. China has found itself within the top countries that impose censorship on residents, and the Comparitech website has actually published a study on the best VPN’s to use for Chinese net surfers to get around this.
China isn’t at the top spot on the rankings, though. That position goes to North Korea, which doesn’t come as a huge surprise. China falls in line in second place, while Russia comes in third position. Iran and Turkmenistan aren’t far behind in fourth and fifth position, respectively.
While making its rankings list, the site considered 10 different factors, including restrictions and/or bans placed on torrents, online pornography, political media, social media and VPNs. North Korea managed to score a complete 10/10 for its banning and restrictions placed on access to all of those categories. As it happens, the North Korean internet only provides access to 28 websites, research suggests.
Other Countries and Their Internet Censorship
With regard to China, the country wasn’t so far behind North Korea, restricting or banning nine out of 10 of the categories, while Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran all scored seven out of 10. Granted, this isn’t an uncommon thing, as a larger portion of countries around the world are trying to control internet access for various things in one way or another.
That also extends to mobile devices, as accessing internet pages and apps for example, are also blocked or restricted within the same countries. Fortunately, for those countries that don’t impose such bans, the Tipico mobile app is still available to download and use for sports betting opportunities.
The study by Comparitech doesn’t include internet shutdowns though, which is considered to be quite the big issue in locations such as India. Despite the fact that there are lighter internet restrictions in place in India, complete shutdowns are not uncommon. This has led to numerous legislators calling for the minimalization of internet blocks in India due to the fact that they consider it to be a basic part of the freedom of speech.
On the other end of the scale, there are numerous countries that haven’t really imposed any huge number of restrictions or bans on the content that their citizens can access through the internet. Countries such as Canada, Poland, Liechtenstein, Belize, Panama, Botswana, Cabo Verde, New Zealand, the Czech Republic and more allow their residents to access large quantities of online content freely.
