An increasing number of governments around the world are reaching across borders in an attempt to harass and silence critics, according to a new report released today by the U.S.-based nonprofit Freedom House.
The group documented 735 incidents of governments physically targeting dissidents abroad using attempted assassination, assault, deportation, and rendition between 2014 and 2021. These extreme measures are likely only the tip of the iceberg; authoritarian regimes have increasingly used local proxies and cyberattacks in a bid to stifle dissent beyond their borders as new technologies have opened up a host of possibilities for what scholars term transnational repression.
