Uzbekistan unblocks Twitter, WeChat and Vkontakte

Uzbekistan has unblocked Twitter, WeChat and Vkontakte.

According to an official report, negotiations with the TikTok platform are ongoing, and additional information will be provided regarding the results.

“Restrictions affect development negatively,” AIMC said in a statement.

The lifting of the ban on four platforms follows changes in the leadership of the Presidential Administration. Last month, Sardor Umurzakov was appointed as the head of the administration, replacing Zaynilobiddin Nizomiddinov. Komil Allamjonov became the deputy head of the administration.

The president’s spokesperson Sherzod Asadov also reacted to the news.

“The president has repeatedly emphasized that ensuring the freedom of speech and the press, the right of citizens to receive and disseminate information, to freely express their thoughts and views is one of the most important directions of state policy and that it will be consistently continued.

Closing the information space, attempts to prevent the pluralism of opinions do not serve the development of the society, but on the contrary, it pulls it back,” said Asadov.

Twitter, TikTok, WeChat and Vkontakte were blocked on July 2 last year.

This was caused by Article 27-1 included in the Law “On Personal Information”. According to the document, the personal information of citizens of Uzbekistan should be stored on servers physically located on the territory of the republic.

No global social network is known to have fulfilled this requirement so far. A number of activists and industry experts have been saying that the article included in the law should be repealed.

On November 3, 2021, Telegram, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Odnoklassniki networks were also blocked, and this caused a great resonance. As a result, the restriction was removed on the same day, and a number of officials were fired.

At the moment, only TikTok remains blocked.