The world wide web, perhaps more than any other human invention, carries the promise and expectation that it can elevate humanity. One group that tracks its progress, the World Wide Web Foundation (WWWF), released a report on Friday detailing which countries are best utilizing the web to promote human rights.
WWWF introduced its report (.PDF) for the second year in a row, titled The Web Index, at a ceremony in London. It revealed that the United States had dropped two positions to fourth place, while Sweden remained in the No. 1 spot of the 81 countries surveyed.
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In its own words, the report assesses how the web empowers people not only to receive information, but also to voice their own views, participate in public affairs and take action to improve their lives.
The report ranks countries in four categories: universality of Internet access; freedom to safely and privately access information and express opinions online; amount and availability of relevant content; and empowerment to use the tools of the Web to foster positive change. The full rankings are below:
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Global Internet assess has more than doubled — rising from 16% to 39% — since the World Summit on the Information Society in 2003, according to The Web Index. The report also found that people around the world are using social media to affect political change, tools that played a role in political mobilization in 80% of the countries studied in the report:
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On the flip side, governments and law enforcement agencies are also increasingly using the Internet to help secure power through censorship and surveillance. Just five out of the 81 countries met what the report deemed "best practice standards for privacy of electronic communications."
"There is an urgent need for all countries to review existing laws and practices to better address the challenges of powerful new digital surveillance technologies," the report read.
As for censorship, "targeted blocking" and "filtering" of sensitive content occurred in 30% of the 81 countries. "Our researchers noted the growing dexterity of governments in using laws against blasphemy, cybercrime, extremism or defamation to justify internet censorship," the report read.
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Another major problem, according to the report, is that 60% of the countries surveyed lacked access to "even the most basic information," meaning health, education and agricultural information were substandard.
Women's rights in particular are poorly served by the web in most of the countries researched, per the report. Information on topics such as sexual and reproductive health, domestic violence, inheritance and the rights of low-paid workers remains largely absent from the web in those countries.
The report makes four recommendations for governments, companies and others who want to use the web to promote human rights: reverse the rising tide of online censorship and surveillance; make broadband affordable and accessible to all; guarantee that all women, men, girls and boys can access essential information; and educate everyone on digital rights and skills.
The first version of the WWWF's report was published in 2012. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Tim Berners-Lee, widely credited as the inventor of the World Wide Web, were among several who spoke at the ceremony Friday. Berners-Lee established the WWWF in 2009.
You can view the full 2013 Web Index report here.
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Image: Flickr, CLUC