Online safety & content laws in Uzbekistan (2026)

As of January 2025 the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan reported 1,389 online items banned for promoting extremism and terrorism — up from 800 in January 2024. ISPs are legally required under Order No. 216 (2004) to block content that inter alia calls for overthrow of the constitutional order, incites war or violence, or contains pornography.

Uzbek law criminalises 'publicly insulting or defaming the President in the media or online', punishable by imprisonment. Freedom House documented 21 journalists, bloggers and internet users who faced administrative or criminal cases for online activity between 2022 and early 2025.

President Mirziyoyev signed a revised Law on Telecommunications in December 2024, expanding the remit of the Ministry of Digital Technologies and establishing a nominally independent Telecommunications Regulatory Agency. It updated licensing rules and sector governance without dismantling content-restriction powers.

The government published a draft law 'On the Protection of User Rights on Online Platforms and Websites' for public consultation in May 2025. It would replace full-scale blocking with court-ordered traffic throttling for non-cooperating platforms, introduce an 'influencer' category with enhanced obligations, and add child-protection mechanisms — but imposes no new fines or criminal penalties on platforms.

The Law 'On the Protection of Children from All Forms of Violence', adopted November 2024, explicitly covers violence committed via the internet and telecommunications networks, including cyberbullying and AI-enabled harm such as deepfakes. No standalone age-verification regime is yet in force.

Under the 1999 Telecommunications Law and subsequent resolutions, downstream ISPs and intermediaries can be held liable for third-party content and may have licences withheld for failure to block unlawful material. No DSA-style safe-harbour or tiered liability framework exists; the May 2025 draft is the first attempt to codify platform liability specifically.