Uzbekistan Aims to Expand Extremism Law and Grow List of Extremist Crimes |
Crossroads Asia | Security | Central Asia
Uzbekistan Aims to Expand Extremism Law and Grow List of Extremist Crimes
In an attempt to further control religious expression, Uzbekistan has updated its blacklist of extremist sites and drafted a law to expand the list of related crimes.
In April, Tashkent once again returned to a familiar priority: counterextremism.
First, on April 6, the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan updated its blacklist of extremist and terrorist online sources and content. Bringing blacklisted material to Uzbekistan, distributing, or even storing it carries hefty administrative and criminal punishments. The list has grown from almost 1,600 online entries in January 2025 to over 1,800. The highest number of blacklisted sources and content is found on Telegram, with 855 public channels and posts (earlier this year, The Diplomat reported on Telegram’s growing centrality in Uzbekistan’s counterextremism efforts). For the first time, the updated list now includes banned content from Threads, a platform launched by Meta in 2023.
Following this, on April 7, the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis adopted a new draft law that expands the list of extremist and terrorist crimes. First Deputy Prosecutor General Bahriddin Valiyev noted a few shortcomings and gaps in present legislation, such as a broad definition of extremism and its intersection with terrorism, lack of an extremist crimes list, and the absence of a mechanism for identifying “informal structures” as extremist. Valieyev also noted the lack of a social rehabilitation system for those who commit extremist crimes.
Uzbekistan’s current law on counterextremism was adopted in 2018. It defined extremism as “an expression of extreme forms of actions aimed at destabilizing the socio-political situation, forcibly changing the constitutional system of the Republic of Uzbekistan, forcibly seizing power and usurping its powers, and inciting national, racial, ethnic, or religious hatred.” Following this law, in 2019Tashkent introduced a blacklist of extremist online materials and sources, at the time it included around 40 entries. Since then, the Supreme court has expanded it at least 80 times.
The Diplomat previously reported on the growing number of arrests of mostly young adults on charges of distributing or storing online extremist materials. More often than not, these materials are religious speeches and sometimes even religious songs (called nasheed). Sometimes the alleged crime is simply liking a post, but it yields a prison term all the same. The practice continues to this........