This interactive map shows you where internet censorship is strongest

If you’re reading this, you probably enjoy open internet access as a matter of course. However, other countries aren’t quite so liberal. How do you know where you’re truly free? IVPN’s new interactive censorship map might just answer that question for you. The site lets you click on a given country to quickly learn about its tendencies to block free speech online, attack critics and shred anonymity. Not surprisingly, very authoritarian governments like China, Cuba and Iran don’t score well, they tend to insist on real names when you post, and will throw you in prison for challenging the internet status quo. Many other countries, like Russia and Venezuela, walk an awkward line between freedom and trying to crush dissent.

Imagine a world where the book burners had won. A world where information is filtered and must be approved by governments before it can be accessed by their citizens. A world where people are held down and kept in line by oppressive regimes that restrict the free flow of information and bombard citizens with government-approved messages. Now stop imagining, because this horrifying world already exists. Millions of people across the globe are currently the victims of a horrible kind of oppression. Scholarly texts, journalism and many other important types of information are actively obscured by nations’ leaders. Social networks and social media sites are blocked in an attempt to keep conversations on-message. Government-approved content and other propaganda is constantly piped over the airwaves and through the Internet. Global awareness of these important issues is rising, but not quickly enough. Cyber-oppression is still a very real problem in many parts of the world, and a new interactive map from VPN service provider IVPN.net shows us which parts of the world are most affected by Internet censorship. The map uses a variety of criteria to distinguish the level of censorship that affects a particular nation, and issues are split up into four main categories: “human rights violations,” “freedom on the Net,” “obstacles to access” and “limits to content.”