Freedom House scores Iran at nine out of a hundred, the year’s steepest fall anywhere

Freedom House published Freedom on the Net 2026 on Wednesday 22 October, covering 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2026. Global internet freedom declined for a sixteenth consecutive year: conditions worsened in 16 of the 38 countries assessed and improved in eight. The largest single-year decline of any country in the sample was Iran’s, which falls to 9 out of 100 from 13 in the previous edition and joins China and Myanmar in the worst-rated tier. Estonia was rated the freest environment. Iran’s subscores are 5 of 25 on Obstacles to Access, 3 of 35 on Limits on Content and 1 of 40 on Violations of User Rights — a user-rights score that leaves almost nothing further to lose. RFE/RL’s Iran live blog carried the finding on 22–23 October, summarising it alongside a global warning about governments using technology, including artificial intelligence, to restrict expression.

The index scores three distinct instruments separately, and they are not the same policy. On the wartime blackout: “Score Change: The score declined from 2 to 0 because authorities implemented an 88-day internet shutdown that began in late February 2026, the longest internet shutdown in Iran’s history,” tied by the report to the conflict with Israel and the United States. On the protests, which predate the war: “The score declined from 2 to 1 because the regime cracked down on antigovernment protests in January 2026 including by implementing a nationwide internet shutdown,” and, in the report’s wording, killing thousands of demonstrators. The third mechanism is commercial. Freedom House records a decline because service providers required Iranians to buy “Internet Pro” packages to reach less-restricted content, describing the price as prohibitive for most Iranians amid historic inflation, with VPNs and satellite hubs similarly priced out. The government also fought circumvention, including by raising the prices of state-backed VPNs.

One caveat has to travel with every number above, and the publisher states it plainly: Freedom House paused coverage of 34 countries in this edition, and the 38 that remain were selected to span geographies, regime types and control methods. The sample is roughly a third of the previous universe. “Sixteen of 38 declined” is therefore drawn from a differently constituted panel than last year’s headline, and is not read as a year-on-year global movement. THE FILES has not established which Middle East and Gulf states survived the cut. Until that is known — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain and Turkey each need checking individually — no comparative line about the Gulf can be drawn from this index, and we are not drawing one.

Assessment: Shutdowns are the legible part of this file and the least durable. A blackout has a start date, an end date and a measurement trail; it is expensive, it is embarrassing, and it ends. A priced access tier does not end. “Internet Pro” converts censorship into a household budget line, sorts the population by what it can pay to see, and requires no emergency decree to maintain. It is the item in Iran’s country file most likely to be true in 2028, and the least covered. Note also what the index cannot do: coverage stops at 31 May 2026, days after the 88-day blackout lifted. On what Iranians can actually reach in October, this document is silent, and nobody should read a score as a connectivity measurement.