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China once again stood last in the internet freedom index for the seventh consecutive year while Taiwan, despite facing intrusions from Beijing, occupied the fifth position.
This was Taiwan's first entry in Freedom House's Freedom on the Net, where the country scored 80 out of a maximum of 100 despite facing regular cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns from Beijing, Taiwan News reported. The reports stated that China was the "world's worst abuser of internet freedom" with a dismal score of 10 and also criticized the country for its imposition of "Draconian prison terms for online dissent, independent journalism, and even ordinary daily communication." Freedom House also slammed China for censorship of information associated with COVID-19, Taiwan Times reported. Cyber attacks are a growing global threat and a number of countries are now focusing on the mounting threat of cybercrimes, Taiwan being at the forefront amid China's military pressure and crippling cyberattacks. Taiwan says it has been able to defend against the overwhelming majority of attacks. Successful breaches number in the hundreds, while only a handful are what the government classifies as "serious." Earlier in July, the United States, the European Union and other allies had also accused China's Ministry of State Security of using "criminal contract hackers" to carry out malicious activities around the world, including a campaign against Microsoft's Exchange email service in March. (ANI)
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