Legal reference: countries with relatively free internet, and activity legality

Compiled 2026-11-03. This is legal-reference research, not legal advice. Each claim is labelled with its confidence: [V] means checked this session against the cited page. [K] means it comes from prior knowledge and the source given was not re-fetched; re-verify it before relying on it. The web-search budget ran out partway through this research, so many legal claims are [K].

1. Reference set: Freedom on the Net (FOTN) 2025, Free + Partly Free

Which edition and why

• FOTN 2025 covers June 2024 to May 2025 and assessed 72 countries. It is the latest full edition, and it is the edition used here. [V]
• FOTN 2026, Seismic Shifts on the Global Internet, launched on 22 Oct 2026. Budget cuts reduced it to 38 countries, so it cannot define a 50-country set. [V]
  • The only status change it reports is Georgia, Free 70 -> Partly Free 68. Georgia stays in the set either way.
  • Other 2026 data points: Kenya 58 -> 59, and the United States unchanged at 73. [V]
  • Bangladesh and The Gambia improved; Jordan and Nigeria declined. None of them crossed the 40-point line as far as the press release says. [V]
• FOTN status bands: Free = 70–100, Partly Free = 40–69, Not Free = 0–39.

Result: 50 reference countries (18 Free + 32 Partly Free). 80% = 40 countries.

Changes from the BRIEF.md draft list

• Added: Chile (87, Free), Netherlands (84, Free) and The Gambia (56, Partly Free).
• Removed:
  • Thailand: scored 39, so it is Not Free. [V]
  • Nepal and Peru: not assessed by FOTN.

These countries were assessed but are excluded as Not Free: Thailand 39, Nicaragua 38, Kazakhstan 37, and everything below them.

Sources for the scores

• Score list for all 72 countries: https://statbase.org/datasets/indexes-and-ratings/freedom-on-internet-index/ [V]
• Rows cross-checked against freedomhouse.org country pages [V]:
  • Thailand 39, Not Free: https://freedomhouse.org/country/thailand/freedom-net/2025
  • Iraq 41, Partly Free: https://freedomhouse.org/country/iraq/freedom-net/2025
  • Cambodia 42: https://freedomhouse.org/country/cambodia/freedom-net/2025
  • The Gambia 56: https://freedomhouse.org/country/gambia/freedom-net/2025
  • Canada 85: https://freedomhouse.org/country/canada/freedom-net/2025
  • Iceland 94: https://freedomhouse.org/country/iceland/freedom-net/2025
• Top-3 ranking from Freedom House on X: https://x.com/freedomhouse/status/1990879459088416830 [V]
• FOTN 2026 report, Georgia and Kenya pages [V]:
  • https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2026/seismic-shifts-global-internet
  • https://freedomhouse.org/country/georgia/freedom-net/2026
  • https://freedomhouse.org/country/kenya/freedom-net/2026

2. Activity legality across the 50 reference countries

How to read the categories and percentages

• legal: residents may lawfully do the activity through a normal private or licensed channel.
• restricted: the activity is lawful only through a state monopoly or a narrow channel, or it carries heavy legal constraints such as a payment-use ban, foreign-exchange (FX) controls, or registration required before starting.
• banned: the activity is prohibited for residents.

Each class gets two percentages:

• Strict % = legal / 50. Use this one for the ">= 80% legal" gate.
• Lenient % = (legal + restricted) / 50.

Summary

(a) Cryptocurrency: owning, trading, and being paid in it

Banned (5):

• Bangladesh: Bangladesh Bank has repeatedly declared crypto transactions illegal (2014, 2017, 2022) under FX and anti-money-laundering law. [V via Wikipedia]
• Morocco: Office des Changes ban since 2017. A crypto-asset bill (Law 42.25) was drafted in 2025; treat the ban as in force until that bill is enacted. [V for the 2017 ban, K for the bill]
• Tunisia: the central bank (BCT) and FX law treat crypto as prohibited. [K]
• Libya: Central Bank of Libya ban, 2018. [K]
• Iraq: Central Bank of Iraq ban, 2017, reaffirmed 2022. [K]

Restricted (4):

• Indonesia: legal to hold and trade as a commodity (Bappebti, now regulated by the financial-services authority OJK), but banned as a means of payment by Bank Indonesia (2018). [V via Wikipedia]
• Ecuador: legal to hold and trade, but banned as payment. [V via Wikipedia]
• Cambodia: the National Bank of Cambodia bars banks from dealing in crypto, and only licensed providers may operate. [V via Wikipedia]
• Jordan: banking ban since 2014. A licensing law for virtual assets was passed in 2025. [V for the banking ban, K for the 2025 law]

Legal, with notes:

• India: legal, but taxed at 30% plus 1% tax deducted at source (TDS).
• Nigeria: the 2021 banking ban was lifted in Dec 2023, and the Investments and Securities Act 2025 now regulates crypto through the SEC.
• Angola: crypto mining was banned in 2024, but holding and trading are not banned.
• Argentina and Colombia: banks may not facilitate crypto, but individuals may hold and trade.
• Kenya and Ghana: virtual-asset service provider (VASP) acts were passed in 2025.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cryptocurrency_by_country_or_territory [V, partly out of date]

(b) Online gambling, betting, and prediction markets

Banned (8):

• India: the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act 2025 bans online real-money games nationwide. [K]
• Indonesia: all gambling is banned (Criminal Code Art. 303; ITE Law). [K]
• Malaysia: online gambling is illegal (Common Gaming Houses Act, Betting Act). [K]
• Cambodia: online gambling banned in 2019, and the 2020 Law on Integrated Resorts bars locals. [K]
• Jordan, Iraq, Libya: penal-code bans. [K]
• Bangladesh: Public Gambling Act 1867. [K]

Restricted (13), meaning only a state monopoly or a partial market is lawful:

[K]

Legal (29): EE, CR, CA, NL, GB, FR, DE, IT, ZA, AU, AM, AR, GE, RS, BR, CO, EC, UA, MX, PH, KE, NG, GH, UG, ZM, MW, ZW, GM, AO.

• FR, AU and ZA allow licensed sports betting but ban online casinos.

Prediction markets are stricter than gambling in general. Most of these countries treat them as unlicensed gambling or unlicensed derivatives, and regulators in FR, TW, SG, UA, HU and others have blocked Polymarket. The strict figure for prediction markets is well below 58%. [K]

(c) Retail forex/CFD trading by residents

Banned (5):

• Bangladesh: Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. [K]
• Malaysia: Bank Negara Malaysia says no retail forex broker is licensed, so trading with them is illegal. [K]
• Tunisia and Morocco: exchange control bars residents from trading FX offshore. [K]
• Sri Lanka: the central bank (CBSL) says online forex trading violates the Foreign Exchange Act. [K]

Restricted (14):

[K]

Legal (31): IS, EE, CL, CR, CA, NL, JP, GB, FR, AU, DE, IT, ZA, AM, AR, GE, HU, RS, EC, MX, KE, SG, ID, JO, KH, KG, NG, GH, UG, ZM, GM.

• EU countries: legal under ESMA leverage caps.
• NG, GH, UG, ZM and GM: legal mainly because nothing prohibits it, not because a regulator licenses it.

Sources: ESMA product-intervention measures; CFTC/NFA rules; RBI Alert List (https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/bs_viewcontent.aspx?Id=4182). [K]

(d) P2P lending / crowdlending as a lender

No reference country bans residents from lending money. Licensing obligations fall on platforms, not lenders.

Restricted (9): UA, BD, LY, IQ, LK, ZW, AO, LB, MW. None has a domestic framework, and FX or capital controls block investing through offshore platforms. [K]

Legal (41): includes the regulated frameworks below.

[K]

(e) Selling adult content

Banned (26): KR, AM, KG, UA, GH, ZM, MW, PH, MY, NG, TN, KE, GM, MA, SG, LK, UG, IN, ZW, LB, ID, JO, BD, LY, KH, IQ.

[K]

Restricted (5):

• Iceland: Penal Code Art. 210 is rarely enforced.
• Japan: Art. 175 mosaic requirement.
• Taiwan: Art. 235, with classification.
• Georgia and Angola: obscenity provisions.

[K]

Legal (19): EE, CL, CR, CA, NL, GB, FR, AU, DE, IT, US, ZA, AR, HU, RS, BR, CO, EC, MX.

(f) Receiving foreign-currency payments through PayPal, Stripe, Wise and Payoneer

Legality

Receiving payment for exported services is lawful in 49 of the 50 countries. Some impose repatriation or reporting rules, for example India's FEMA purpose codes and Bangladesh's export-proceeds rules.

• Restricted: Tunisia. Residents need central-bank (BCT) authorization to hold foreign-currency accounts abroad, so balances held with Payoneer or PayPal are a grey area. [K]

Availability (not a legality question)

PayPal detail:

• False (5):
  • Nigeria: send-only. The homepage describes only send and shop. [V weak, K]
  • Bangladesh, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya: PayPal is not offered. [K]
• Unknown (14): GE, AM, MA, TN, ZM, MW, ZW, AO, UG, GM, KG, KH, GH, JO.
  • Their PayPal homepages exist but describe only sending and shopping, which suggests limited functionality. Check before relying on PayPal receive in these countries. [V that the pages exist]
• Confirmed by country page:
  • Kenya: "Withdraw Funds Instantly to your Equity Account". [V]
  • Sri Lanka: "To receive and withdraw funds, link your PayPal account to a local partner bank". [V]

Practical rule for the strategy catalog: treat Payoneer as the default rail, at about 100% coverage. PayPal receive coverage is 62% confirmed. Wise is 48% and Stripe is 30% (38% counting Paystack).

Sources:

• https://wise.com/help/articles/2813542/where-do-i-need-to-live-to-hold-money-with-wise [V]
• https://stripe.com/global [V]
• https://www.paypal.com/ke/home [V]
• https://www.paypal.com/lk/home [V]
• https://www.payoneer.com/legal/prohibited-transaction-list/ [V]
  • Payoneer also prohibits gambling, adult and crypto transactions on its own rails.

(g) Bandwidth-sharing apps (Honeygain, Pawns.app, EarnApp, Grass, and similar)

• No reference country specifically prohibits residents from sharing spare bandwidth, so legal coverage is 100%. [K]
• Risks are contractual and practical, not legal:
  • Many ISPs' acceptable-use policies forbid reselling or sharing the connection.
  • Your IP address can be used by third parties, which creates abuse-attribution risk.
  • Countries that regulate VPNs and proxies (India's CERT-In logging rules, for example) target providers, not end users.
• Platform availability and payout rails (PayPal or crypto) are the binding constraint. Crypto payouts are unusable in the 5 crypto-banned countries.

(h) Freelancing without registering as a sole proprietor first

Registration required before earning or invoicing (17), so "restricted" without it:

[K]

Legal to start and register afterwards, or tax filing only (33):

[K]

Takeaway: strategies should say "register as self-employed where required" and not depend on staying unregistered. Done that way, freelancing is legal in 100% of the set.

3. Machine-readable file

countries.json (same directory) maps each ISO-2 code to:

• name, fotnScore, status
• paypalReceive: true / false / "unknown"
• stripeSupported, wiseSupported, payoneerSupported: booleans
• cryptoLegal, gamblingOnlineLegal: "legal" / "restricted" / "banned"

Its values match the lists above.