TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan tied for fifth in a new global internet freedom ranking, while North Korea ranked last and China placed near the bottom, according to Visual Capitalist.
In the latest rankings covering 171 countries, no country received a perfect score for internet freedom, per Liberty Times. Eleven countries tied for first with the highest score of 92, including Belgium, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Suriname, and Timor-Leste.
According to Visual Capitalist, the data for its Internet Freedom Index was sourced from Cloudwards, which evaluated countries across four criteria: torrent downloading, VPN availability, access to adult content, and political and civic expression.
The online publisher said the US scored 64 out of 100, placing it alongside Japan and Australia, but below Norway and Canada. The UK scored just 52, reflecting tighter control over areas such as access to online content.
Notably, South Korea scored 32, ranking below Cuba, Kazakhstan, and Venezuela. Visual Capitalist said this highlighted how content restrictions, not just political systems, can affect internet freedom scores.
Taiwan scored 72, tying for fifth place with nine other countries, including Bulgaria, Estonia, Ghana, Guatemala, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Paraguay, and Spain. In Asia, Taiwan placed third, trailing Timor-Leste and Mongolia.
At the bottom of the rankings, North Korea ranked last with a score of zero. China, Russia, Iran, and Pakistan followed with scores of just four.
