According to the report, the role of social networks as catalysts of the "Arab Spring" has made a number of “supposedly democratic” countries adopt practices of totalitarian regimes.
Twelve countries now hold the status of "enemies of the Internet": Bahrain, Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Uzbekistan, Iran, Vietnam and Turkmenistan.
These countries are characterized by “drastic content filtering”, “access restrictions”, “tracking of cyber-dissidents,” and “online propaganda.”
Another group of countries including Australia, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and new additions India and Kazakhstan, are classified as “under surveillance”.
Azerbaijan, along with Morocco, and Tajikistan were listed as countries where “Reporters Without Borders will continue to closely monitor online freedom of information.”