Internet Freedom in 2025: Why Anti-Censorship Tools Still Matter
Freedom House's latest research connects internet shutdowns, platform blocking, encrypted communications, and the growing pressure on anti-censorship tools.
Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2025 report recorded a fifteenth consecutive annual decline in global internet freedom. Across the 72 countries it assessed, conditions worsened in 28 and improved in 17. The report points to a familiar combination of pressure: blocked content, surveillance, penalties for online speech, and network disruptions during politically sensitive moments.
Its companion special report, Tunnel Vision, focuses on the tools people use when ordinary access and private communication come under pressure. It describes virtual private networks, encryption, and related anti-censorship technology as important parts of a free and open internet, while also documenting growing attempts to restrict them.
The special report says anti-censorship technologies were blocked in at least 21 of the 72 countries covered by the 2024 Freedom on the Net edition during the preceding five years. It also notes legal restrictions on providers and app-store removals in some places. That is an important distinction: a connection problem is not always an outage; it can be a policy or platform decision.
A VPN is not a universal answer to every access or security problem. It can protect traffic on an untrusted network, but it does not make unsafe accounts safe, remove the need for strong authentication, or guarantee that a service will be reachable in every location. Clear limits are more useful than sweeping promises.
For everyday users, the useful starting point is basic security: keep devices updated, use a password manager and multi-factor authentication, check the provider's privacy documentation, and understand which client and protocol are being used. On public Wi-Fi, verify the network name before connecting and avoid treating a VPN as a substitute for those fundamentals.
For providers, the lesson is transparency. Publish accurate status information, explain what the service can and cannot do, keep support guidance current, and avoid presenting privacy tools as a shortcut around every rule or risk. Trust depends on precise information, especially when network conditions change quickly.