Internet & Online Safety · Oman
Online safety & content laws in Oman (2026)
Oman shaded by its internet & online safety status
Oman regulates online content and safety through overlapping instruments: the 2011 Cybercrime Combat Law criminalising harmful online speech and system intrusions; the 2024 Media Law (in force 18 November 2024) imposing mandatory Ministry of Information licensing on all digital media activities including social-media news accounts; and TRA-enforced ISP-level filtering blocking pornography, anti-Islamic content, and certain political speech. No single comprehensive online-safety statute equivalent to the EU Digital Services Act or UK Online Safety Act is in force or formally proposed; the regime is therefore characterised by partial, overlapping rules rather than a unified framework.
Key points
Royal Decree 12/2011 criminalises unauthorised system access, online fraud, identity theft, defamation, and content deemed to violate public order. Article 19 has been applied to prosecute individuals for social-media speech critical of the government, with penalties up to 10 years' imprisonment.
Royal Decree 58/2024 (in force 18 November 2024) consolidates all media regulation into 60 articles covering print, broadcast, and digital platforms. Operating a news website or social-media news account requires a Ministry of Information licence; only Omani citizens may apply for social-media licences, excluding residents and migrant workers.
Ministerial Resolution 65/2025 (11 September 2025) issued 144-article executive regulations implementing the 2024 Media Law. They detail content prohibitions (false information, incitement to violence or hatred, content violating public morals) and require platforms to provide correction/response mechanisms for false information.
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority enforces ISP-level blocking of pornography, gambling, anti-Islamic content, proxy/anonymisation services, the Tor network, and certain political or dissident websites. Some VoIP services have also been subject to intermittent blocking. VPNs are not formally banned but circumvention tools are restricted.
Royal Decree 6/2022 establishes rights of access, correction, and erasure over personal data and obligations on data controllers, forming the data-privacy layer of the online-safety framework. No independent supervisory authority modelled on GDPR's DPA structure has been publicly confirmed as fully operational.
Oman has no comprehensive online-safety statute imposing risk-assessment, algorithmic-transparency, or graduated-liability obligations on hosting platforms analogous to the EU Digital Services Act or UK Online Safety Act. Platform-level obligations derive indirectly from the Media Law licensing regime and Cybercrime Law, not from a dedicated online-safety law.
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