The mass surveillance conducted by U.S. and U.K. spy agencies was unpopular enough to land the two leading democratic governments on the same “enemies of the Internet” list as Russia and China compiled by press freedom advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders.

The eight-year-old annual index on Internet freedom ranks the nations of the world according to free speech, free press and open access to the Web.

[READ: The U.S. Gives the Internet to the World]

Since the start of the war on terror in 2001, the U.S. “has been torn by the conflict between national security imperatives and respect for the principles of the First Amendment,” the report said, critical of surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency. The press freedom group also criticized the U.K. for the role of its Government Communications Headquarters as a partner in mass surveillance.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden set off a firestorm beginning in the summer of 2013 when he leaked documents to the press revealing surveillance efforts by the two spy agencies - including that they tapped data traffic of Google and Yahoo without a warrant. Revelations also included that the NSA monitored people using the “World of Warcraft,” and uploaded spyware onto computers.

