Internet & Online Safety · Tajikistan
Online safety & content laws in Tajikistan (2026)
Tajikistan shaded by its internet & online safety status
Tajikistan exercises heavy state control over the internet rather than operating a rights-based online-safety regime. Since a 2016 presidential decree, all international traffic must pass through the state-run EKTs ('Single Communications Gateway') operated by Tojiktelecom, giving authorities centralized power to surveil, throttle and block. News sites, major social networks, messaging apps and VPNs are arbitrarily blocked—often after political events or presidential criticism—and 'extremism' designations are used to ban outlets, while the government promotes a domestic messenger (ORIZ) for 'digital sovereignty.'
Key points
A 2016 decree by President Rahmon created the Unified Electronic Communications Switching Center (EKTs), requiring all phone and internet traffic to be filtered through a gateway run by state-owned Tojiktelecom under the State Communications Service—centralizing surveillance and censorship and giving Tojiktelecom de facto monopoly control.
The Communication Service under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan is the sectoral regulator; it directs ISPs and is widely reported to order the blocking of sites and apps, though it routinely denies responsibility for specific blockings.
Authorities repeatedly and arbitrarily block social media and news—at various points Facebook, Instagram, YouTube/Google services, Telegram, WhatsApp, VKontakte, TikTok and independent sites like Asia-Plus—typically around political tensions or after presidential remarks linking the internet to 'terrorism.' RSF likens the approach to large-scale Chinese-style censorship.
Censorship-circumvention tools are targeted: users report that well-known VPNs are blocked alongside the platforms they are used to reach, limiting workarounds during shutdowns.
Tajikistan's Supreme Court declared the independent outlet Pamir Daily News an 'extremist organisation' (effective 19 July 2025); the site is blocked and participation in its activities is punishable by 7–21 years' imprisonment—illustrating use of security/extremism law against online content.
In December 2025 Tajikistan launched a national messenger, ORIZ, promoted by the Communication Service head as 'a step toward digital sovereignty'; rights observers raised surveillance concerns given the state's centralized control of communications. No public, rights-based age-verification or platform-liability framework exists.
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