Armenia has improved its status in an annual report released by a U.S.-based watchdog that believes that the South Caucasus nation now enjoys internet freedom.
In the “Freedom on the Net 2018” report released on November 1 Freedom House says Armenia has upgraded from “partly free” to “free” nations after “citizens successfully used social-media platforms, communication apps, and live-streaming services to bring about political change in the country’s Velvet Revolution in April.”
Armenia thus joins another South Caucasus country, Georgia, in the “free” category.
The report says that Armenia’s case demonstrates that “digital activism fuels political, economic, and social change: the Internet continues to serve as a tool for democratic change.”
According to the level of its freedom on the net Armenia is ranked 27th globally. In the region only Georgia is ahead of Armenia in 25th place. Azerbaijan is considered “partly free”, ranking 60th, while Turkey and Iran are among “not free” countries.
Russia as well as Armenia’s two other allies in the Eurasian Economic Union – Belarus and Kazakhstan – are also placed among “not free” nations in terms of internet freedom.
“This year has proved that the internet can be used to disrupt democracies as surely as it can destabilize dictatorships,” said Adrian Shahbaz, Freedom House’s research director for technology and democracy, as quoted by the watchdog’s website.
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