Member Article

97% of internet users want technology providers to do more to make online content accessible

New research by Hola has discovered that an overwhelming number of citizens living under some of the world’s harshest internet censorship regulations believe technology providers should be doing more to make online content accessible. 97% of respondents across China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and United Arab Emirates (UAE) came to this conclusion, and 82% of users also believed the need for web content tools will increase in the next year to get around growing internet restrictions.

Although various types of websites are restricted, citizens surveyed in these territories admitted to struggling to gain access to basic resources that many outside of those regions take for granted. For example, the research revealed that those with limited access to web content are struggling to access educational information and resources (43%) and online news (29%).

The findings also showed 92% of respondents that use web content unlocking tools to access online content believe they are important to enable this access and 95% of internet users that have limited access to online content already use web content tools to access restricted material.

“The internet was created to be a global borderless resource that benefits us all, but due to geopolitical interferences, it is becoming increasingly closed off in certain regions, and we must all work together to fight back against this,” explained Avi Raz Cohen, Hola’s General Manager. “As we can see in the findings, users are struggling to gain access to educational material and online news content, amongst other things, and this is simply unacceptable. We agree with users in those regions that technology companies should be doing more to address this and one key weapon in this battle is free web content tools that help unlock blocked content. We are proud to provide free VPN technology and web tools that unlock online content and help bypass restrictions. One thing is certain - we’ll do all we can to support citizens around the world as they push for borderless online freedom.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hola .