Harness the Web to Drive Social Progress, Governments of Emerging Markets are Told

LONDON, November 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Sweden tops the annual Web Index (thewebindex.org) country rankings for 2013, whilst the emerging BRICS economies of China, India, Brazil, Russia and South Africa are falling behind on the use of the Web to drive development and innovation. These results are being unveiled today as part of the World Wide Web Foundation's annual Web Index Report, the world's first measure of the Web's contribution to social, economic and political development in 81 countries. The World Wide Web Foundation was established by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web.

Overall rankings

    Top 5                       BRIC Countries
    Country        Overall rank Country        Overall rank
    Sweden         1            Brazil         33
    Norway         2            South Africa   35
    United Kingdom 3            Russia         41
    United States  4            India          56
    New Zealand    5            China          57

The Web Index 2013 report shows that:

• China and Russia censor Web content extensively and have no meaningful safeguards against online spying by security agencies. In India, censorship is moderate, but vulnerability to state surveillance is high. Brazil and South Africa combine low levels of blocking with reasonably good safeguards against unwarranted surveillance.

• Russia ranks first among the BRICS for the quality of its communications and internet infrastructure, with China, Brazil and South Africa close behind and India lagging a distant fifth.

• Brazil and Russia are among the top 20 countries in the world for the social and environmental impact of the Web, outranking countries such as the Germany, Netherlands, and Spain.

The report highlights Brazil's civil law for the Internet (Marco Civil da Internet) for the ambition of its vision to enshrine users' rights to a free and open Web. The UK and USA, along with 24 other countries worldwide, scored poorly in categories that measure safeguards against excessive online surveillance.

Anne Jellema, the Chief Executive Officer of the World Wide Web Foundation said:

'With a mediocre showing in this year's Web Index, the BRICS are fast being outpaced by poorer countries such as Costa Rica, Colombia and the Philippines in harnessing the Web to accelerate development and innovation. To remain competitive, they need to do much more to make the internet affordable and accessible for everyone.'

Speakers at the launch include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia and Lily Cole, the actor and founder of Impossible.