Internet Censorship in Kazakhstan - More Pervasive Than You May Think - Opendemocracy

7/20/22, 2:42 PM Internet censorship in Kazakhstan: more pervasive than you may think | openDemocracy
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Internet censorship in Kazakhstan: more pervasive than you may think
As Internet penetration grows in the country, so do the government’s attempts to monitor,

control and repress dissenting voices.
Dina Baidildayeva
26 March 2018
Kazakhstan is ranked “Not free” on Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net report (blue signifies “Not free” status).
Freedom House website screenshot.As of April this year, internet users in Kazakhstan will no longer be able to leave
anonymous comments online. In late December 2017, President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a law obliging websites
to register every internet user who wishes to leave a comment, either by SMS verification or digital signature. Websites
who fail to abide by the new rules could face fines of up to $750. Kazakhstan’s Minister of Information and
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/internet-censorship-in-kazakhstan/ 1/12
Communications Dauren Abayev said that everyone “must be responsible for what they want to say.” “In cases of
incitement to interethnic discord or calls for unconstitutional actions, I think it should be possible for law
enforcement agencies to track down commenters,” Abayev told the press before the bill was passed.
In response to the new law, several independent media outlets including regional newspaper Uralsk Week and
news portal Ratel have completely removed the option of leaving a comment from their websites. Lukpan
Akhmedyarov, editor-in-chief of Uralsk Week, said that he is against the new rule and decided to remove the
comment section from the newspaper's website.
“In principle, I am against this new law, because it violates our right to free speech. We decided not to play by the
government’s rules and removed the comment section from our website instead. Now we have observed that
traffic to our website has not decreased and our readers have started commenting on our news directly on social
media, like Facebook,” Akhmedyarov told me via telephone.
The latest legislative measure is only part of a set of repressive policies adopted by the government to tighten
control over the internet in recent years. In July 2017, new government regulations granted the National Security
Committee, the country's intelligence agency, authority over the centralised telecommunications network,
Kazakhstan's single gateway to internet access.
Over the years, people in Kazakhstan have grown used to taking their social and political commentaries to social
media, and despite the government’s efforts, this practice may prove hard to eradicate
In the aftermath of the December 2011 Zhanaozen violence that left at least 15 people dead as a result of police
forces opening fire against unarmed protesters, internet access was curtailed. In the weeks following,
Kazakhstan's parliament passed amendments to the National Security law, which allowed the government to
shut down internet access and mobile connection during mass riots or anti-terrorist operations held in the
country. The amendments also forced internet service providers and mobile operators to block their services
when an official order is issued.
The new version of the law allows the General Prosecutor to request an internet shutdown without a court order
in the event of calls to “participate in unauthorised public gatherings, calls for terrorism, extremism and mass
riots.” Since 2014, the Prosecutor’s powers were extended to websites that contain “illegal material.” In February
2015, during clashes between Tajiks and Kazakhs in South Kazakhstan, broadband and mobile connections
became inaccessible.
A court order issued on 13 March this year applied the “extremist” label to the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan
(DVK), an opposition movement set up in 2001 and led from exile by Mukhtar Ablyazov, a former minister and
banker. The court ruled that DVK “calls for forcible change of Kazakhstan’s constitutional order” and is therefore
classified as extremist. Any show of support to DVK, including on social media, could land individual internet users
in jail for up to two years for “participation in the activities of a banned public or religious association”.
As a result, on 15 March, an alleged DVK supporter in Almaty was placed under house arrest. The following day,
police interrogated Askar Shaigumarov, a video blogger from the city of Uralsk, regarding his “positive
endorsement” of DVK. Over the years, people in Kazakhstan have grown used to taking their social and political
commentaries to social media, and despite the government’s efforts, this practice may prove hard to eradicate.
Censorship in the name of “national security”

President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ruled Kazakhstan since its independence after the collapse of the USSR in
1991. No elections in Kazakhstan have been recognised as free and fair by international observers. In 2010,
Parliament passed a bill that granted Nazarbayev and his family immunity from prosecution by declaring him
Leader of the Nation, and criminalising the defamation of his figure in the media.
Out of 18m people living in Kazakhstan, over 13m people are internet users according to the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU). As of 2017, the internet penetration rate in Kazakhstan is relatively high among
Central Asian republics at 76.8%, according to Freedom House. Kazakhtelecom, the 51% state-owned national
internet service provider, has increased its domination of the domestic telecoms market in recent years. In July
2009, Nazarbayev signed a bill that recognised internet resources, including websites, blogs and social media, as
mass media, thus bringing them under the regulations of the mass media law. The new legal configuration
triggered the banning of LiveJournal and WordPress, popular blogging platforms. Analysts saw the new measure
as a blow to Nazarbayev’s son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev, who had used LiveJournal to publish posts against the
president.
Starting from January 2015, “spreading rumours” in Kazakhstan can land you in prison for up to ten years. Under
Article 242-1 of the Criminal Code approved by Nazarbayev in July 2014, the “deliberate propagation of false
information” both in press and social media is a criminal offence. Together with Article 174 (“inciting national,
ethnic and religious discord”), the Criminal Code has established a broad and vague framework for silencing
potential critics of the regime.
In 2016, social media user Sanat Dosov was charged under Article 174 and sentenced to three years in jail for
insulting Russian President Vladimir Putin on a post on his Facebook page. In a similar case, political activists
Serikzhan Mambetalin and Yermek Narymbayev were convicted of “inciting national discord” on 22 January 2016
for their Facebook activity. Both activists were barred from engaging in civic activities for five years. Narymbayev
later fled the country and is seeking political asylum in Ukraine.
State propaganda portrays Kazakhstan as a haven of interethnic peace and stability and this view cannot be
contradicted by online users
New legislative measures and recurring court cases against social media activists have induced more and more
internet users to self-censor their online presence for fear of reprisal. Since January 2016, local authorities have
also demanded that all internet users install a National Security Certificate on all devices. This measure has
allowed the government to increase its surveillance capabilities. Internet activist Dmitriy Schelokov said that he is
aware of government surveillance.
“I'm not particularly affected by internet censorship. I use VPNs to access blocked sites. It's sad, however, that I
have to be cautious while posting and chatting online, because I am sure I can be tracked by law enforcement
agencies. Luckily, there are now secure messaging apps like Telegram that offer end-to-end encryption and I can
text or call with confidence that the government cannot track my communications,” the internet activist told me
via Telegram.
Screenshot of a failed attempt to access petition platform Avaaz.org from the territory of Kazakhstan (March
2018).Apart from blocking opposition websites and blogging platforms, the government has also impaired access to
internet tools used to circumvent censorship. A number of web anonymisers, including stupidcensorship.com,
proxify.com and ninjacloak.com have been blocked in Kazakhstan since 2011. Independent media outlet Ratel.kz is
periodically blocked within Kazakhstan, especially after the publication of stories that uncover high-profile
corruption cases.
The popular global petition platform Avaaz has also been blocked in Kazakhstan since 2014, after activists
initiated a petition calling for Nazarbayev’s impeachment due to his inability to improve living conditions in the
country. Importantly, the website was blocked on 11 February 2014, the day of a Central Bank-mandated 19%
devaluation of the national currency, which triggered widespread public discontent. Change.org, another global
petition platform, has been inaccessible since 2016 because it hosted a petition calling for the dismissal of then-
prime minister Karim Massimov, who now heads the National Security Committee.
“Kazakhstan is a land of peace and stability”

State propaganda portrays Kazakhstan as a haven of interethnic peace and stability and this view cannot be
contradicted by online users. According to a Google Transparency report, between January-June 2017, Google
received a substantial number of requests from the Kazakh authorities to remove content, the vast majority of
which were for “national security” reasons. As pictured in the chart, government requests related to National
Security reached an all-time high since 2009. The report also mentions that Kazakhstan's government requested
Google to remove “the YouTube channel for a TV channel supportive of the opposition.” Google did not comply
with the request.
Google Transparency Report on Kazakhstan. Website screenshot (March 2018).Domestically, over 9,000 websites have
been blocked for “extremism and terrorism” content according to minister Abayev. Several world-renowned video
and photo hosting platforms including Vimeo, Flickr and Tumblr are routinely blocked in Kazakhstan by court order
for “extremist and pornographic content.” In 2014, Kyrgyzstan’s independent media outlet Kloop.kg, Russian
independent news website Meduza, and British tabloid The Daily Mail were all blocked for publishing material about
Kazakh children allegedly joining ISIS. Authorities also practise selective filtering of online content. Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty’s individual URLs containing news articles on Kazakh militants joining ISIS were selectively
blocked in 2015.
Kazakhstan's authorities have adopted increasingly restrictive legislative measures and opened criminal cases
against social media users to silence critical voices
Network connections have become spotty throughout the country and in selected regions for disparate reasons,
such as during mass protests, ethnic conflicts and when Ablyazov runs his opposition livestreams on Facebook
and Instagram. Every year, around the anniversary of the Zhanaozen massacre, when activists plan to organise
demonstrations, internet users experience problems using WhatsApp, Instagram and other social networking
sites.
In April and May 2016, during mass protests across the country against a proposed land reform, internet users
had difficulties accessing Facebook and Google. Since access to internet is also curtailed on ordinary days,
activists have speculated that law enforcement agencies have been testing their ability to shut down the whole
internet, should it become necessary.
Kazakhstan's authorities have adopted increasingly restrictive legislative measures and opened criminal cases
against social media users to silence critical voices and induce self-censorship online.
As the importance of online media and communication have grown significantly over the last several years in
Kazakhstan, including for the expression of dissenting voices, so have government attempts to tighten control.
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7/20/22, 2:42 PM Internet censorship in Kazakhstan: more pervasive than you may think | openDemocracy

Democracy is being eroded across the world.

Internet censorship in Kazakhstan: more pervasive than you may think

As Internet penetration grows in the country, so do the government’s attempts to monitor,

Censorship in the name of “national security”

“Kazakhstan is a land of peace and stability”

Get oDR emails

First name (optional)

Last name (optional) →

Rel ated arti c l es

Kazakhstan: the limits of authoritarian crisis management

The “Moscow Consensus”: Constructing autocracy in post-Soviet Eurasia

For Eurasia’s activists, no place is a safe haven

What I didn’t write about Zhanaozen

Kazakhstan’s thin red line

Digital sovereignty à la russe

Got tagged? Get fined! Russia’s battle against “digital extremism”

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