Bangladesh's internet freedom score climbs five points amid global decline: Freedom House report
Despite improvement, Bangladesh remains categorised as “Partly Free” in the internet freedom index of Freedom House, a status it has held since 2013
Bangladesh posted the strongest improvement in internet freedom among 72 countries assessed by Freedom House this year, even as global online freedom continued to deteriorate, according to the Freedom on the Net 2025 report released today (13 November).
The 15th edition of the annual study by the US-based democracy watchdog, which evaluates human rights conditions in the digital sphere, reviewed developments in internet freedom between June 2024 and May 2025.
"Bangladesh earned the year's strongest improvement, as a student-led uprising ousted the country's repressive leadership in August 2024 and an interim government made positive reforms," Freedom House stated in its report.
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This year, Bangladesh's internet freedom score rose by five points to 45 out of 100 – the country's best score in seven years. Its score was 40 in 2024.
Despite this improvement, Bangladesh remains categorised as "Partly Free" in the internet freedom index of Freedom House, a status it has held since 2013.
The Freedom House index measures each country's level of online freedom using 21 indicators across three categories – obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights – to produce a score on a 100-point scale.
The report also highlighted several policy shifts under Bangladesh's interim administration.
It noted that in September 2024, "the interim government appointed Muhammad Emdad-Ul-Bari as the new chair of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. He pursued policy changes to prevent internet shutdowns and pledged to treat internet access as a human rights concern."
Further reforms followed in May 2025, when the government repealed the controversial Cyber Security Act (CSA), a draconian framework for internet censorship, and replaced it with the Cyber Security Ordinance (CSO).
The report said, "The CSO featured some positive provisions, including safeguards against harassment and sexual exploitation online. However, it retained concerning rules related to content removal, criminal penalties for online speech, and surveillance."
Meanwhile, among the four South Asian countries reviewed, Bangladesh is only ahead of Pakistan but behind Sri Lanka and India. Pakistan scored 27 points and was categorised as "Not Free", while Sri Lanka and India earned 53 and 51 points respectively, both classified as "Partly Free".
