Online safety & content laws in Kazakhstan (2026)

Law No. 18-VIII entered into force on 9 September 2023, requiring online platforms with more than 100,000 daily users in Kazakhstan to establish a local representative, moderate content in the Kazakh language, remove 'illegal' and 'false' information on government orders, and cooperate with authorities — or face blocking.

OONI research (June 2023–June 2024) documented at least 17 news-media sites and 73 circumvention tools blocked in Kazakhstan using deep-packet inspection (DPI) that terminates TLS handshakes after the unencrypted Client Hello, confirming ISP-level infrastructure for targeted blocking.

OONI identified 7 intermediate certificates signed by 4 root CAs being used to conduct TLS man-in-the-middle interception targeting at least 14 domain names across at least 19 networks, enabling state actors to decrypt and inspect encrypted traffic.

Authorities routinely prosecute individuals for social media posts under 'false information' and related criminal provisions. In December 2025 police raided independent outlet Orda.kz and placed its editor-in-chief under house arrest on false-information charges, illustrating continued use of platform law powers against the press.

Draft amendments under discussion by 2025 would ban social media registration for users under 16, with age-verification mechanisms to be co-developed by the Ministries of Education and Digital Development. No law has yet entered force.

Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2025 report scored Kazakhstan 4 out of 100 (Not Free), noting marginal improvement due to fewer network disruptions during protests, but describing the overall environment as 'repressive' given systematic blocking, surveillance, and legal harassment of online expression.