Why Would some Nondemocratic Regimes Allow Internet Freedom

The emergence of the Internet has resulted in great social changes, which can be only compared with the Gutenberg revolution when printing was invented. These changes not only promote innovations but also transform the way humans communicate. However, with the Internet appearance, the problem of its regulation has arisen for national governments. Today basic human rights, such as freedom of expression should be protected not only offline but also online. Nevertheless, statistics show that more than two-thirds of the world’s population live in countries where the Internet Freedom is quite limited, due to strict censorship of ruling authorities. This tendency is especially significant in states with non-democratic regimes, where violation of civil rights occurs quite frequently. However, there are still some non-democratic regimes, which do allow Internet freedom. The aim of this paper is to investigate factors, influencing the extent to which a government is reluctant to allow net freedom. Analyzing panel data on 35 countries over a 6-year period, we indicate that the Internet freedom in non-democratic regimes could be determined by various factors, however statistically significant effects are provided by the level of democracy, demographic factors, and oil resource abundance. As for the oil reserves, they are assumed to have a direct effect on the dictator's choice about the allowed degree of freedom on the Internet.