Online safety & content laws in Bahamas (2026)

Parliament enacted the Data Protection Act, 2025, replacing the outdated 2003 Act with a GDPR-inspired framework that covers AI, biometrics, cloud computing, and cross-border data transfers; a strengthened Office of the Data Protection Commissioner is established with updated enforcement powers. Implementation is to follow in phases by ministerial notice in the Gazette.

URCA issued its final determination (ECS 77/2024) adopting a revised Code of Practice for Content Regulation that introduces new guidelines for AI-generated and synthetic media, enhanced protections for young audiences, and broadened applicability to internet-delivered broadcasting and social media platforms operating in The Bahamas.

The Government published the new Electronic Communications Sector Policy (2024-2027) in the Official Gazette, setting strategic objectives including bridging the digital divide, mandating a Universal Service Fund contribution from licence fees, and providing the guiding framework for URCA's regulation of internet access and digital services for the next three years.

The Governor General's Speech from the Throne on 4 October 2023 formally declared the Davis administration's intention to enact comprehensive new data protection legislation, signalling an overhaul of the Bahamas' online privacy framework and initiating a multi-year legislative process that culminated in the 2025 Act.

URCA published a revised Code of Practice for Content Regulation, updating standards for harm and offence, protection of minors, political advertising, and news accuracy across all licensed broadcast and electronic communications services, reflecting changes in the digital media landscape since the original 2011 code.

Following a public consultation and a preliminary position paper issued in April 2018, URCA concluded that formal net neutrality rules and specific regulation of over-the-top services (WhatsApp, Skype, Netflix) were not warranted, opting instead for a transparency-based approach requiring operators to publish their network management practices, a decision that set the open-internet posture still in place today.

URCA published its first Code of Practice for the Regulation of Content Services and Audiovisual Media Services, establishing formal content standards for all electronic communications licensees covering harm, protection of minors, political broadcasts, advertising, and news, the foundational content-regulation instrument for Bahamian internet and broadcast services.

The Communications Act 2009 and the URCA Act 2009 created the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority as an independent multi-sector regulator for electronic communications, broadcasting, pay TV, and internet services, replacing the Public Utilities Commission and the Television Regulatory Authority and establishing the primary legal framework for internet governance in The Bahamas.

One of the first data-protection statutes in the Caribbean, enacted in 2003, came into legal effect on 2 April 2007, establishing a Data Protection Commissioner and core principles (fair collection, purpose limitation, security) that applied to both public- and private-sector online and offline data processing.

Enacted in April 2003 and brought into force in June 2003, the Computer Misuse Act criminalised hacking, phishing, spoofing, cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and unauthorised access to computer systems, establishing The Bahamas' foundational cybercrime law with extraterritorial reach and police powers to seize and decrypt digital devices.