In its recent report on Freedom on Net 2020, the Freedom House sums up the key developments in the sector for Georgia from 1 June 2019 to 31 May 2020.

These developments include: A substantial cyber-attack, later linked to the Kremlin, that Georgia experienced and which disrupted more than 2,000 Georgian government-owned and privately owned websites in October 2019; Controversial amendments to the Law on Information Security were initiated that could potentially give the State Security Service access to vast troves of personal data, and The Constitutional Court invalidated a long-standing telecommunications regulation that required service providers to block websites hosting “inadmissible content”.

According to the Freedom House: “Digital freedom is generally protected in Georgia. However, several challenges related to the increase in the number of cyberattacks and in domestic content manipulation were observed during the coverage period. Even though rates of internet access continue to grow, government efforts to expand internet infrastructure have stalled”.