Internet freedom improved significantly in Bangladesh: Freedom House

Washington-based nonprofit organization Freedom House has observed that Internet freedom improved significantly in Bangladesh after a student-led uprising resulted in the ouster of longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League (AL) government.

The organization's latest report, 'Freedom on the Net 2025', released on Friday, said that despite the decline in online freedom worldwide, Bangladesh has made significant progress. Bangladesh has made the biggest progress in internet freedom among the 72 countries assessed this year.

The report monitored the online environment and policies from June 2024 to May 2025. Freedom House said that some positive changes have taken place in the digital sector since an authoritarian government in Bangladesh lost power in a student-led coup in August 2024. As a result of these changes, Bangladesh's score increased by 5 points to 45, which is a significant improvement from 40 last year and the highest position in the last seven years.

However, despite the improvement, Bangladesh still remains in the list of 'partly free' countries, where the country has been since 2013.

The three main areas of scoring are:
1) Barriers to access to the internet
2) Control over content published online
3) Violations of user rights

Each country's online freedom is assessed based on a total of 21 indicators across these three categories.

The report said that Bangladesh's interim government adopted a policy of not shutting down the internet and emphasized viewing the internet as a human right.

In May 2025, the government repealed the controversial Cyber ​​Security Act (CSA) and replaced it with the Cyber ​​Security Ordinance (CSO). While it added protections against online harassment and sexual assault, the improved law still retains some concerns, including penalties for expression and surveillance.

Bangladesh is ahead of Pakistan in South Asia, but behind India and Sri Lanka. Pakistan scored 27 points and was classified as 'not free', while Sri Lanka (53) and India (51) are both in the 'partially free' category.