A new report found that governments around the world are increasing efforts to curtail the Internet by monitoring and restricting the flow of information. Laws have been passed imposing criminal penalties for online dissent. This is the fourth year of the decline of a free Internet. (Reason, December 4, 2014, by Elizabeth Nolan Brown)
China is among the countries ranked lowest in Internet freedom using sophisticated methods to censor content. Internet freedom suffered a pronounced drop in Russia and Turkey. Countries who previously blocked websites to block content and now using laws to govern how people use the Internet and social media devices. (The New Yorker, December 4, 2014, by Vauhini Vara)