Online safety & content laws in Ecuador (2026)

The Ley Orgánica de Comunicación originally imposed broad 'subsequent responsibility' on digital platforms for all hosted content; 2019 reforms under President Moreno removed platform liability for third-party user comments while retaining responsibility for unattributed editorial content, and abolished the previously notorious Superintendencia de Información y Comunicaciones (SUPERCOM).

Ecuador's Ley Orgánica de Protección de Datos Personales (enacted May 2021, implementing regulations via Executive Decree No. 904 in November 2023) establishes GDPR-modelled rights and creates the Superintendency of Personal Data Protection. Foreign platforms are required to appoint a local legal representative; as of September 2025, only nine companies had complied and no major tech platform was among them, leaving enforcement largely theoretical.

The Ley Orgánica para el Fortalecimiento de la Ciberseguridad was approved by the National Assembly on 10 February 2026 with 82 votes and entered into force upon publication in the Official Registry on 22 May 2026. It focuses on protecting critical digital infrastructure, defining cyber-incidents and cyberattacks, and mandating digital-safety education in schools; it does not create platform content-moderation obligations comparable to the EU DSA.

In February 2026 ruling-party legislator Katherine Pacheco introduced a bill to amend the Code of Childhood and Adolescence to ban under-15s from social media platforms, with fines of up to 5% of local annual revenue for non-compliant platforms. The proposal is framed as a national-security measure: Ecuador's Organised Crime Observatory found roughly 27% of minors first contacted by criminal groups were approached via social media. As of May 2026 the bill remains under consideration.

Ecuador currently imposes no legal requirement on online platforms to verify user ages before granting access to content, nor any obligation to proactively detect, screen, or remove child sexual exploitation material. The global policy inventory for child online exploitation law confirms these obligations are absent.

Freedom House rated Ecuador 'Partly Free' in Freedom on the Net 2024 (score 63/100), noting that the government does not impose technical censorship or systematic content blocking, but that organised-crime violence has worsened self-censorship among online journalists. Internet penetration exceeds 75% of the population.