# The Politics of Routing: Investigating the Relationship Between AS Connectivity and Internet Freedom

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.02230 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.02230/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 7 Jun 2016.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [On the Detection of Reviewer-Author Collusion Rings From Paper Bidding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.07860/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The Internet's importance for promoting free and open communication has led to widespread crackdowns on its use in countries around the world. In this study, we investigate the relationship between national policies around freedom of speech and Internet topology in countries around the world. We combine techniques from network measurement and machine learning to identify features of Internet structure at the national level that are the best indicators of a country's level of freedom. We find that IP density and path lengths to other countries are the best indicators of a country's freedom. We also find that our methods predict freedom categories for countries with 91% accuracy.