Online safety & content laws in Ghana (2026)

Act 1038 (enacted 29 December 2020) establishes the CSA as the primary online-safety regulator, criminalises cybercrimes, mandates cybersecurity incident reporting by service providers, and creates a Child Online Protection (COP) framework that criminalises production, distribution, and possession of child sexual abuse material and obliges platforms to report and remove such content.

The draft Cybersecurity (Amendment) Bill 2025, published by the CSA for public consultation (closing November 2025), proposes giving the CSA quasi-law-enforcement investigative powers, setting platform moderation standards, and imposing transparency and penalty regimes. Civil-society groups and the Ghana Journalists Association have raised concerns that ambiguous language could chill free expression.

As of December 2025, the Minister of Communications confirmed plans to submit legislation to Cabinet that would require age verification — using the national Ghana Card identity system — before minors can access adult content online, directing ISPs and telecoms to enforce the restrictions. The legislation had not yet been enacted as of May 2026.

The National Communications Authority, established under the Electronic Communications Act 2008 (Act 775), regulates ISPs and telecoms and enforces compliance with the Electronic Transactions Act 2008. The NCA can order interception of communications under Section 100 of Act 775 on executive direction, but is not considered fully operationally independent.

Freedom House rated Ghana's internet environment as 'Partly Free' in its Freedom on the Net 2025 report. The information space is largely free of technical censorship, but individuals risk arrest for online posts, disinformation proliferated during the December 2024 elections, and the CSA's expanding surveillance authorities (Sections 71 and 73 of Act 1038) have drawn rights-organisation scrutiny.

Ghana has not enacted a dedicated platform-liability framework analogous to the EU's Digital Services Act or the UK's Online Safety Act. Platform obligations currently derive from sector-specific provisions in Act 1038 (cybersecurity incident reporting, CSAM removal) and general Electronic Transactions Act duties, leaving significant regulatory gaps for harmful-but-legal content moderation.