Freedom House: Armenia moves to list of countries with “free internet”

01.11.2018

Armenia has improved its positions in the Freedom on the Net 2018 and moved to the list of countries with “free internet”.
Armenia scored 27 points out of 100, as per the Freedom House report entitled Freedom on the Net 2018.
According to the report, Internet freedom in Armenia improved after citizens effectively used social media platforms, communication apps, and live streaming to engender political change in April 2018. Online content and social media apps were not restricted during the reporting period, and there were no reports that civil society figures were hacked.
Digital activism and live streaming were essential to the Velvet Revolution’s effectiveness, a fact that did not go unnoticed by government supporters. Police and government sympathizers physically attacked online journalists using digital live-streaming tools to broadcast the events.
Access to the internet continued to grow during the reporting period, and some operators have been working to install 5G service. The government generally refrains from blocking or filtering, and no social media or communication apps were restricted in the past year. Self-censorship on some issues improved during the coverage period. As tensions between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh region simmered down following the April 2016 flare up in hostilities, social media users and online journalists faced less pressure to restrict their discussions of and reporting on the conflict.
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