Why TikTok Is Still Blocked in Uzbekistan

On 27 March 2026 the rule that got TikTok blocked in Uzbekistan was quietly taken apart. Six months later, TikTok still doesn't load on the country's biggest internet network.

The law behind the block has changed, the block hasn't, and nobody in Tashkent has publicly explained why.

The 2021 rule: store Uzbek data in Uzbekistan

On 14 January 2021 President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a package of amendments (Law No. ZRU-666) that added a new Article 27-1 to the 2019 Law "On Personal Data". It came into force three months later, in mid-April 2021 (sources give 15 or 16 April).

The requirement was short and very broad. Anyone processing Uzbek citizens' personal data with information technology had to collect, systematise and store it "on technical means physically located" in Uzbekistan, in databases registered with the state. For a global platform, that meant servers inside the country, signed into a state register.

Russia had passed a similar rule years earlier, and Uzbek critics said so openly. The economist Abdulla Abduqodirov later told Kun.uz the law had been "copied from the Russian Federation."

How the blocks rolled out

The regulator, Uzkomnazorat (the State Inspectorate for Control in the Sphere of Informatization and Telecommunications), wrote to several platforms in May 2021 telling them they were in breach. On 2 July 2021 it announced that an unnamed group of networks had been added to a "register of violators" and would be restricted "until the identified deficiencies are eliminated". Users noticed TikTok and Twitter failing first, then VKontakte, Skype and WeChat.

Sources differ on exact dates. A July 2025 analysis reported by Kun.uz puts the Twitter restriction at 28 May 2021 and the TikTok block at 26 June 2021; the Tashkent Times and The Diplomat describe the restrictions becoming visible in early July.

Date	What happened
14 Jan 2021	Article 27-1 added to the personal data law
15/16 Apr 2021	Localisation rule in force
Late May – early July 2021	Twitter, TikTok, VKontakte, Skype and WeChat restricted
3 Nov 2021	Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Moi Mir, Odnoklassniki, Telegram and YouTube added to the register
Nov 2021	Backlash; the regulator's head and the ICT minister fired; Telegram, Facebook, YouTube, Odnoklassniki restored
Dec 2021	TikTok briefly opens without a VPN on some mobile networks
1 Aug 2022	Twitter, WeChat and VKontakte unblocked; TikTok left restricted
26–27 Mar 2026	Localisation rule narrowed; amendment in force

The week Telegram went dark

The November 2021 round was the regulator's big mistake. Telegram is how Uzbekistan talks: ministries post there, businesses sell there, families run their group chats there. Cutting it on 3 November caused an immediate outcry.

The president's press secretary, Sherzod Asadov, said Mirziyoyev had been informed of "unilateral, not fully thought out actions" by Uzkomnazorat. The regulator's head, Golibsher Ziyaev, was fired, and so were ICT minister Shuhrat Sodiqov and presidential adviser Olimjon Umarov. Telegram, Facebook, Odnoklassniki and YouTube came back within days.

Twitter, WeChat and VKontakte stayed restricted until 1 August 2022, when the Information and Mass Media Agency lifted the block with a one-line explanation on its Telegram channel: "blocking only harms development." TikTok was left out. The agency said talks with the company were continuing.

None of these platforms, as far as reporting at the time shows, ever moved Uzbek user data onto Uzbek servers. They were simply let back in.

TikTok's near miss

TikTok almost made it too. In December 2021, after the head of a state-backed media fund met TikTok vice-president Theo Bertram, the app began opening without a VPN for some users. Podrobno.uz reported at the time that this worked only on some mobile networks (Uzmobile and Beeline), that wired connections from Uzbektelekom still blocked it, and that TikTok was still on the register.

It didn't last. By February 2022 the Adolat party, then the third-largest group in parliament, was complaining about a viral clip of a young man kicking an older man, apparently filmed in Samarkand, and said the app "poisons the minds of young people." Earlier, in the week of the first blocks, the president himself had criticised "ugly cases in social networks", including clips filmed at monuments to Alisher Navoi and Amir Temur that had spread on TikTok.

So was TikTok really blocked for where it stores data? Legally, yes: that's the stated ground, and Kun.uz reported in 2022 that the company had been on the violators' register since 2 July 2021. Politically, the content complaints clearly didn't help. Our read is that the data rule gave the state a lawful reason, and the moral panic gave it little reason to hurry.

A blocked app that pays tax

Here's the odd part. TikTok is registered in Uzbekistan as a foreign provider of electronic services, which means it pays VAT on money it earns from Uzbek users. According to figures from the State Tax Committee reported by Nova24 in January 2025, TikTok earned 7.5 billion som in Uzbekistan in 2024 and paid roughly 1 billion som in tax.

People are using it through VPNs, and the state is collecting the tax.

What the law cost, by one estimate

In July 2025 Kun.uz published an analysis by Kotib AI Research estimating that the localisation rule was costing Uzbekistan $3.2–4.5 billion a year, or 4–5.7% of GDP, mostly through services that never entered the market: PayPal, Stripe, Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure. The method behind the number isn't published. The direction was hard to argue with, though. Political analyst Kamoliddin Rabbimov told Kun.uz that "no one has brought the required databases into Uzbekistan – and they never will."

March 2026: the rule is narrowed

The fix came from payments, not social media. In November 2025 Mirziyoyev said changes would "create conditions for the launch of Apple Pay and Google Pay". The Legislative Chamber passed the amendments on 20 January 2026, the Senate approved them on 5 February, the president signed on 26 March, and they took effect on 27 March.

According to a Dentons client note, the blanket requirement is gone. Mandatory storage inside Uzbekistan now applies to three kinds of data only: biometric data, genetic data, and data on users of telecom operators working in Uzbekistan. Everything else can be stored and processed abroad if one of three conditions is met: the destination country is recognised as offering equivalent protection (the Cabinet of Ministers is to publish that list), the company uses approved standard contractual clauses or binding corporate rules, or it complies with approved international standards.

On paper, that's a path TikTok could use. But the reporting on the amendment doesn't mention TikTok or the register of violators, and we found no statement on reviewing old blocks.

Is TikTok still blocked now?

Yes, on the main network. Network tests collected by OONI, an open project that measures internet censorship from volunteers' devices, showed that in the month to 27 September 2026, the large majority of tests of tiktok.com from Uzbektelekom's network (179 of 209) came back anomalous. Over the same period, tests of twitter.com from the same network loaded normally 213 times out of 218. OONI data updates daily, so these counts are a snapshot, not a standing figure. On one smaller provider the TikTok results were mixed, which fits the long-running pattern of blocks being applied unevenly across operators.

Separately, in May 2025 a draft law "On the Protection of the Rights of Users of Online Platforms and Websites" was published for discussion. It proposed that platforms which consistently fail to cooperate with the authorities could have their speed reduced, by court order, instead of being cut off outright. We couldn't confirm whether it has been adopted.

If you're visiting

Expect TikTok not to work on a local SIM or hotel Wi-Fi. Instagram, YouTube and X loaded normally in the same month's tests. On VPNs: in October 2018 the ICT ministry publicly denied that new legislation would ban VPNs or proxy servers, saying the changes targeted hacking and unauthorised network access. Freedom House has recorded some VPN services being blocked technically, and we found no law that makes simply using a VPN an offence for a visitor. Install one before you fly. Our SIM card and internet guide covers operators and data, and laws and customs to know before you go covers the rules visitors actually run into.

And keep in mind that a blocked app is a separate question from what you post. Uzbekistan's criminal code has its own provisions on online speech, including insulting the president online.

Sources

This article is for general information and is not legal advice.