Internet & Online Safety · Dominican Republic
Online safety & content laws in Dominican Republic (2026)
Dominican Republic shaded by its internet & online safety status
The Dominican Republic regulates online safety through a patchwork of laws covering cybercrime, data protection, and telecommunications, but has no single comprehensive online-safety or platform-accountability statute in force. President Abinader submitted a draft Organic Law on Freedom of Expression, Audiovisual Media and Digital Platforms to Congress in May 2025, which would introduce transparency obligations for large platforms and establish a new independent regulator (INACOM); as of mid-2026 the bill remains in the legislative process. The internet is generally open and not subject to systematic state censorship.
Key points
Law No. 53-07 (2007) is the primary instrument addressing online harms, criminalising illegal system access, data interception, identity theft, electronic fraud, and online child sexual abuse material; it created specialist enforcement units DICAT and the National Police Cybercrime Division.
No unified statute equivalent to the EU Digital Services Act or UK Online Safety Act is in force; online-service regulation is distributed across Law 53-07, Law 126-02 (Electronic Commerce), and Law 153-98 (Telecommunications), leaving gaps on content moderation and platform accountability.
The Executive submitted the Organic Law on Freedom of Expression, Audiovisual Media and Digital Platforms to Congress on 2 May 2025. It would require large platforms to be transparent about automated moderation systems, offer users meaningful appeals, and comply with human-rights standards; non-compliant platforms face sanctions.
Under the draft law, platforms such as Meta, X, and Google would not be held liable for third-party content if they demonstrate swift removal of illegal material including hate speech, racism, and incitement to violence — a notice-and-takedown model rather than proactive monitoring.
The draft law proposes creating the National Institute of Communication (INACOM) as an autonomous body to oversee media and digital-platform compliance; civil society critics warn the regulator's broad sanctioning powers, including authority to suspend broadcasts, risk indirect censorship.
No specific statutory age-verification obligations for online platforms are currently in force. The internet operates without systematic state-level content blocking; Freedom House characterises the Dominican Republic as 'Free' in its global assessments, though self-censorship among journalists is noted as a concern.
Dominican Republic - other topics
Last verified 5/24/2026 · Orientation, not legal advice - verify against the primary sources linked above. Explore the full world map →