Bangladesh's internet freedom score has climbed for a second straight year, driven almost entirely by the absence of government-ordered shutdowns rather than any real improvement in how authorities treat citizens for what they post online. Freedom House, the US-based watchdog, gave the country 50 out of 100 points in its newly released Freedom on the Net 2026 report, up from 45 in 2025 and 40 in 2024.
The gain marks the largest year-on-year improvement among the 38 countries the organisation assessed this cycle. Yet Bangladesh remains classified as "Partly Free," a status it has held continuously since 2013. The ranking reflects a familiar pattern seen across much of the developing world: infrastructure access improves while the legal and political environment around speech stays frozen or worsens.
Why the Score Moved
Freedom House evaluates countries across three pillars: obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights. Bangladesh's five-point gain this year came almost entirely from the first two categories. Four points were tied to the absence of any internet shutdown during the review period, running from June 2025 to May 2026 -- the first such stretch since 2016. One additional point reflected a modest reduction in website blocking carried out for political or religious reasons.
These are meaningful shifts. Shutdowns have historically been one of the bluntest tools governments use to suppress dissent, cutting off access to information, commerce and communication for entire populations during periods of unrest. Their absence suggests at least a tactical restraint from the authorities overseeing this transition period, which spanned the final months of the interim government and the early months of the newly installed BNP administration.
User Rights Remain the Weak Point
The access gains mask a far more troubling picture in the report's most heavily weighted category: user rights, where Bangladesh scored just 13 out of 40 -- identical to the previous year. This category captures the lived experience of ordinary internet users, including exposure to surveillance, prosecution under speech-related laws, and physical intimidation linked to online activity.
Freedom House documented prosecutions of both Awami League supporters and critics of the new government over online posts, citing four arrests between late March and mid-April alone. Separately, more than 280 journalists faced politically motivated legal cases as of May, most connected to coverage of the 2024 uprising perceived as sympathetic to the former ruling party. The report also pointed to state plans to expand surveillance infrastructure, referencing a Tk 95 crore allocation approved in May to broaden the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre's content-blocking capacity.
Online Incitement and Real-World Violence
One of the report's starkest findings concerns the December 2025 attacks on the offices of Prothom Alo and The Daily Star, two of Bangladesh's most prominent independent news outlets. Freedom House traced the violence to online rumours accusing the outlets of pro-India sympathies -- a label used as shorthand for perceived loyalty to former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Mobs set fire to both buildings, putting journalists' safety at direct risk. The episode illustrates a pattern now familiar in several countries: digital incitement translating swiftly into offline harm, often faster than platforms or authorities can respond.
Regional and Global Context
Among South Asian nations assessed this year, Bangladesh is now tied with India, which dropped one point to also land at 50. Pakistan remains in the "Not Free" category with a score of 27. Globally, internet freedom declined for the sixteenth consecutive year, underscoring that Bangladesh's improvement runs counter to the broader trend even as it falls well short of guaranteeing genuine protection for online expression.