Tunnel Vision: Anti-censorship Tools, End-to-End Encryption, and the Fight for a Free and Open Internet

The report, prepared jointly by the European University Institute and Freedom House, explores the growing global threat to free and open Internet: state restrictions on anti-censorship technology – like virtual private networks, or VPNs – and end-to-end encryption protocols. One example is Venezuela, where last summer, during mass protests against President Nicolás Maduro’s election fraud, the government blocked the end-to-end encrypted app Signal. In the past five years, at least 21 of the 72 countries evaluated by Freedom House for the 2024 Freedom on the Net report curtailed access to secure communication technologies.