Region: Uzbekistan

Dictators are using digital tools to repress and suppress democratic dissent, reinforcing digital authoritarianism. Our latest report looks at what’s happening in the EECA region, and how pro-democracy activists are fighting back against digital dictatorship.

“Digital dictatorship: authoritarian tactics and resistance in Eastern Europe and Central Asia” unpacks the tools of oppression in the region, and explores resistance.

Access Now is demanding an end to an information vacuum that is exacerbating social unrest in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan.

Turkmenistan internet shutdowns are extreme. Here’s why the international community must take action to combat the wave of online censorship engulfing Central Asia.

Swedish telco TeliaSonera is taking further steps to remedy its involvement in corrupt business deals in Uzbekistan, most recently by Monday’s ousting of four senior executives.

Access recently released a paper by Peter Bourgelais, an Access Tech Fellow, highlighting the growing electronic surveillance in post-Soviet Central Asia and the difficulties of regulating its manufacture and distribution. In Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, Russian-made technologies and companies dominate the market, and techniques that have limited regulatory efficacy elsewhere — such as export controls and public campaigning — are much less effective.

Amid allegations of corruption and bribery in Uzbekistan, Swedish telco giant TeliaSonera’s chief executive resigned today after an independent probe found faults with the company’s due diligence in securing the contract.