Estonia has the freest internet in the world

According to the Freedom on the Net 2026 index, compiled by Freedom House, Estonia has the freest internet in the world.

In this year’s index, Estonia scored 91 points out of the possible hundred, making it the freest internet ahead of Costa Rica, Taiwan, Australia and France.

Most countries in Europe – and in the world, for that matter – haven’t been assessed in this year’s index, including Finland, Latvia and Lithuania. Freedom House said it paused coverage of 34 countries in this edition the index, and the 38 countries covered were selected to assess a range of environments across geography, regime types and types of internet controls.

The least free internet in this year’s index is in Myanmar, Iran, China and Russia.

According to the index, global internet freedom declined for the 16th consecutive year.

Net freedom as the guidepost in the AI era

“Iran joined the world’s worst environments for internet freedom and marked the most significant deterioration during the coverage period, as authorities brutally repressed an antigovernment protest movement in January and enacted extreme online censorship after the United States and Israel attacked the country in February, starting a monthslong war. China and Myanmar remained among the world’s worst environments, while Estonia was the freest online environment,” Freedom House said in the index.

“Internet freedom should serve as a guidepost in the AI era. The rapid adoption of agentic AI services, which perform tasks independently, is already transforming the internet. Around the world, societies will grapple with how to configure the internet in response. Those efforts should work to preserve open exchange and free expression as fundamental values.”

Freedom House is a nonprofit based in Washington, DC, best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, political freedom and human rights. It was founded in October 1941, and most of its funding comes from the US State Department and other government grants.

The organisation’s annual Freedom in the World report assesses each country’s degree of political freedoms and civil liberties. Another key annual report, Freedom on the Net, is Freedom House’s annual survey and analysis of internet freedom around the world.