Online safety & content laws in Belarus (2026)

By February 2025 the Ministry of Information had restricted access to more than 15,000 websites; nearly 7,000 were classified as 'extremist.' In 2024 alone, over 3,150 'destructive' internet resources were blocked, and the National List of Extremist Materials grew by roughly 2,000 entries that year.

During the January 2025 presidential election the OAC ordered ISPs to block all websites hosted outside the .by domain from 25–27 January, effectively cutting off the majority of the foreign internet. VPN services including Proton VPN and NordVPN were simultaneously throttled or blocked.

Government Resolution No. 476 of 2 September 2025, underpinned by February 2025 amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, authorises authorities to disconnect individual subscribers from telephone and internet services without any judicial proceeding. It entered into force on 5 September 2025.

Belarusian law criminalises accessing, sharing, reposting, or commenting on content by entities designated 'extremist' or 'terrorist.' Ordinary users have received sentences of over a year in prison for social-media activity; journalists sentenced in absentia have received ten-year terms. The designation also bars all online outlets from even referencing blacklisted organisations.

All ISPs are legally required to install equipment giving the OAC and KGB direct, real-time access to traffic data. The OAC sets information-security standards, manages the .by top-level domain, and can order blocking or throttling unilaterally. Reporters Without Borders designates the OAC an 'enemy of the Internet.'

The 2021 amendments to the Law on Mass Media allow the Ministry of Information to stop a media outlet's operations or block an internet resource without a court order after two warnings. January 2025 amendments to domain-registration guidelines empower national-domain administrators to cancel .by domain registrations that harm 'national interests' and add them to a new ban list.