Online safety & content laws in Guyana (2026)

Act No. 16 of 2018 is the core statute: it criminalises illegal access, data interference, computer fraud, child luring, child pornography, cyberbullying (s.19), and online identity theft. It does not establish platform liability or content-moderation obligations for social media services.

Section 18 of the Cybercrime Act makes it an offence (up to five years imprisonment) to publish or transmit online content that brings the Government into hatred or contempt; civil-liberties groups have criticised this as a potential tool to criminalise political dissent.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall announced a revision of the 2018 Cybercrime Act to strengthen penalties for social-media-related abuses against private citizens and to address gaps in the existing framework, particularly around child safety and reputational harm.

President Irfaan Ali announced in January 2026 that broad national consultations on social-media regulation would commence, aimed at curbing platform excesses while preserving free expression. No draft bill had been tabled in Parliament as of the announcement.

Guyana has no enacted age-verification requirements for online services and no statutory duty-of-care or content-moderation obligations on platforms analogous to the EU Digital Services Act or the UK Online Safety Act.

The Telecommunications Act 2016 established the Guyana Telecommunications Agency as sector regulator; internet access is not subject to government blocking or filtering, and no credible evidence of systematic state surveillance of online communications without judicial oversight has been documented.