But what happens when less globally offensive sites start getting blocked, or certain sites are throttled?

We may be about to find out, since early 2017 the federal government of the United States seems to have been testing the waters in preparation for potential adjustments to Internet freedom, on April 2nd the President signed a bill that released Internet service providers like AT&T; and Verizon from having to protect consumer data. This move has put a huge amount of private information in jeopardy and it looks like just the beginning. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is attempting to weaken net neutrality rules, which would allow those same ISPs to create fast lanes for preferred Internet traffic while throttling other traffic sources, sources such as people planning a rally or anti-government demonstration for example.

Back in 2016 Freedom House ranked the united states as having one of the freest webs in the world, but recent events have placed the united states under the country's to watch list; marking a possible negative trajectory and Internet freedom for 2017. The US isn't alone, of the 65 countries assessed in 2016 34 have been on a negative trajectory since 2015. Other key findings from the Freedom House report detailed that Internet freedom around the world declined for the sixth year in a row, social media users have begun to face unprecedented penalties with authorities in 38 countries making arrests based on social media post in the past year.

In fact worldwide governments are increasingly going after messaging apps like WhatsApp and telegram which allow for quick and secure spread of information, so while the United States and the West as a whole have been a bastion for Internet freedom for many years, it's worth noting that we may be in for some unpleasant changes in the near future.

After having read the whole post for sure you will be asking the same question as many at this time, then is the internet really free?

Well, it seems that as the world progresses there will be no such thing as a free internet and is that more and more countries and organizations are joining initiatives dedicated to further restrict the content to which we can access.