Bangladesh has posted its second consecutive annual gain in internet freedom, driven almost entirely by the absence of government-ordered shutdowns, yet citizens remain exposed to arrest, surveillance and mob violence over what they post online. The finding comes from Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2026 report, released Thursday, which scored the country 50 out of 100, up from 45 last year and 40 in 2024.
A Score Driven by Access, Not Rights
The improvement marks the largest single-year gain among the 38 countries Freedom House assessed this cycle, yet Bangladesh remains classified as "Partly Free," a status it has held since 2013. The distinction matters: a rising score does not necessarily mean a freer internet in any meaningful civic sense. Freedom House measures three categories - obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights - and Bangladesh's gains were concentrated almost entirely in the first. Four of the five additional points came because the review period, running from June 2025 to May 2026, recorded no internet shutdowns, the first such stretch since 2016. One more point reflected a modest decline in websites blocked for political or religious reasons.
Shutdowns have long been one of the bluntest tools governments use to control information during periods of unrest, cutting off access to news, organizing tools and evidence-gathering during protests or crises. Their absence is a genuine, measurable improvement. But it is also a comparatively low bar: a government that simply refrains from switching off the internet is not the same as one that protects what people say on it.
User Rights Remain Stagnant
That gap shows clearly in the user rights category, the most heavily weighted of the three, where Bangladesh scored just 13 out of 40 - unchanged from the previous year. The report attributes this stagnation to continued state surveillance, laws that criminalize online expression, and ongoing violence and intimidation against individuals targeted for their posts.
The report's coverage window spans a political transition, capturing the final months of the interim government and the early months of the BNP administration. During this period, both supporters of the Awami League and critics of the new government faced prosecution for online speech. Citing Human Rights Watch, Freedom House documented four such arrests between March 31 and April 17 alone. Separately, more than 280 journalists faced politically motivated legal cases as of May, the majority tied to coverage perceived as sympathetic to the Awami League during the 2024 uprising.
Online Incitement and Real-World Violence
Perhaps the starkest illustration of the gap between digital rhetoric and physical consequence came in December 2025, when online rumors accused Prothom Alo and The Daily Star - two of Bangladesh's most prominent independent outlets - of harboring pro-India sentiment, used as coded language for alleged loyalty to ousted leader Sheikh Hasina. Mobs subsequently attacked and burned both newspapers' offices, endangering journalists inside. Freedom House explicitly links the online incitement to the resulting violence, underscoring how unchecked disinformation can translate directly into physical harm against media institutions.
The report also flags a structural concern: citing Daily Star reporting, it notes the government approved roughly Tk 95 crore in May to expand the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre's content-blocking infrastructure. Even as shutdowns have paused, the state appears to be investing in tools that could enable more targeted, persistent forms of censorship.
Regional and Global Context
Bangladesh's score now ties it with India, which dropped one point to 50, while Pakistan remains "Not Free" at 27. Globally, Freedom House recorded a sixteenth consecutive year of declining internet freedom, a trend that frames Bangladesh's narrow gains as an exception rather than evidence of a broader regional or global shift toward digital openness. For ordinary users, the practical reality is one of continued vulnerability: access may be stable, but speech still carries legal and physical risk.