Online safety & content laws in Cameroon (2026)

The government imposed nationwide internet disruptions and blocked TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Telegram beginning 23 October 2025 amid protests disputing the Constitutional Council's confirmation of President Paul Biya's re-election. Proton VPN recorded a 3,000% surge in Cameroonian sign-ups on the first day of disruption. International digital-rights groups condemned the action as an unlawful suppression of protest communication.

Amid rumours about President Biya's health, a ministerial communiqué issued to regional governors formally banned any media discussion of the subject, one year before the presidential election. The directive was enforced through the National Communication Council (CNC) and underscored the use of administrative orders, rather than legislation, to restrict online and broadcast content.

Human Rights Watch documented the arrest of a social-media activist on charges of 'incitement to rebellion' and 'propagation of false information' under the 2010 Cybersecurity Law, in connection with TikTok videos encouraging democratic participation ahead of the 2025 elections. The case illustrated how cybercrime provisions are routinely weaponised against peaceful online speech.

President Biya signed Cameroon's first dedicated child-online-safety statute, setting the digital age of majority at 18, requiring ISPs and social-network operators to implement parental controls and report child sexual abuse material, and enabling ANTIC to levy penalties within 15 days of non-compliance. It is the first African law to define 'digital majority' in a standalone child-protection framework.

The NGO Global Concern Cameroon petitioned Cameroon's Constitutional Council to strike down the Anglophone internet shutdowns as unconstitutional violations of freedom of expression. The Court declared the petition inadmissible for lack of locus standi, only the President, parliamentary leaders, or one-third of legislators may petition the Court, effectively closing judicial review to civil society on internet shutdown legality.

Following renewed protests in the Anglophone crisis, the government ordered a targeted block of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp across the North-West and South-West regions; the block persisted for over 100 days into early 2018. Combined with the first shutdown, the two Anglophone internet restrictions cost Cameroon an estimated $38 million and drew international condemnation.

The government ordered a complete internet cut-off in the North-West and South-West regions following teacher and lawyer strikes against Francophone bias. The blackout lasted 93 days (restored 20 April 2017), was the first government-ordered internet shutdown in sub-Saharan Africa at that scale, and drew a statement from the UN Human Rights Council. ANTIC was the regulatory body through which the order was technically executed.

The Prime Minister's decree established conditions and modalities for compulsory security audits of all electronic communications networks and information systems in Cameroon, operationalising the audit framework sketched in the 2010 Cybersecurity Law and giving ANTIC supervisory authority over private-sector compliance.

Enacted alongside the cybercrime law, this statute created the licensing and regulatory framework for all electronic communications networks and services, replacing the outdated 1998 Telecommunications Law. It established the Telecommunications Regulatory Board (ART/TRC) as the sector regulator and laid the infrastructure-governance foundation for later internet-safety obligations.

The third pillar of Cameroon's 2010 digital-law package governed electronic transactions, electronic signatures, and consumer protection online, giving legal certainty to digital contracts and anchoring ANTIC's role in certifying electronic signatures, completing a comprehensive ICT legal framework enacted in a single legislative session.

Cameroon's landmark cybercrime statute criminalised unauthorised access, data manipulation, digital fraud, identity theft, child pornography, hate speech, and, critically, the 'dissemination of unverifiable information', a clause later used to prosecute journalists and activists. It also established ANTIC as the Root Certification Authority and set procedural rules for law-enforcement seizure of digital evidence.

Cameroon's first modern telecommunications law set the conditions for installation and operation of networks, opened the sector to private investment, and established the licensing regime that underpins all subsequent electronic-communications regulation including internet service provision. It was the baseline legal framework before the comprehensive 2010 digital-law overhaul.