While website blocking and internet outages were observed in Belarus before, this new tool will allow the government to have excessive control over individual’s digital rights and access to information. By Resolution No. 476 of 2 September 2025, the Government of Belarus approved the procedure for restricting access to Internet. In addition to clarifying the existing procedure for blocking access to websites, this resolution introduces a new mechanism for restricting access to communications in the form of disconnecting specific subscribers from communications (including telephone and Internet) without judicial proceedings. The procedure came into force on 5 September 2025.
This resolution was facilitated by a new version of Article 199 in the Criminal Procedure Code of Belarus (adopted in February 2025), which introduced new measures aimed at eliminating the causes and conditions that contributed to crimes on the Internet.
Now, the Prosecutor General, the head of the Investigative Committee, the chairman of the KGB, the Minister of Internal Affairs or their authorised officials will be able to issue requests to restrict access, after indicating the grounds and reasons for the violation. The requests must contain information about the investigation or criminal case, the identified violation of the law that serves as the basis for restricting access to the website, and the causes and conditions that contributed to the crime.
Website blocking in Belarus
The procedure for website blocking has not changed significantly from the existing procedure, which is not connected to the criminal process. The resolution describes the procedure as follows: the request is sent to the State Inspectorate for Telecommunications of the Ministry of Communications to include the website in the list of sites with restricted access, as well as to the site owner, if known. Within 4 hours of the State Inspectorate adding the internet resource identifier to the list, internet service providers must take organisational and technical measures to restrict access. Once the violations have been remedied, the site owner may submit an application for access to be restored, which will be considered within a month. Access may be refused if the violations have not been fully remedied or if there are new reasons for refusal.
In February 2025, Minister of Information Marat Markov stated that access to more than 15,000 websites was restricted in the country, of which nearly 7,000 were labeled as “extremist.” In the first 5 months of 2025, the Ministry of Information restricted access to approximately 3,600 internet websites.
Blocking access to the internet and communication services
Moreover, the resolution regulates the suspension and termination of telecommunications and internet services, which is aimed at disconnecting specific subscribers from the communications network, including removing their personal phone numbers.
Requests for these measures are sent to telecommunications operators and the National Traffic Exchange Centre (from 15 October 2025). The telecommunications operator suspends the provision of services to the identifiers specified in the request on the day of its receipt for a period of six months (unless otherwise specified in the document). Upon expiry of this period and in the absence of a decision to resume the provision of services, the telecommunications operator shall terminate the provision of services altogether, regardless of the existence of other restrictive measures, by unilaterally terminating the contract.
The suspension of services shall last up to 6 months, with the possibility of subsequent termination in the absence of a decision to resume. If it was immediately ordered to terminate the provision of telecommunications services, this subscriber number can be transferred to another user after 3 months.
Thus, the new procedure establishes the possibility of disconnecting specific citizens and organisations from access to various types of electronic communications (including telephone, mobile phone and internet) without judicial proceedings.
According to the text of the resolution No. 476, law enforcement agencies can now directly submit a request to block a website, Internet resource or communication service for a specific legal entity or individual. After that, the State Telecommunications Inspectorate adds the necessary websites, IP addresses or links to a special list.
It should be noted that, besides this resolution, there are several regulatory acts in Belarus that regulate restrictions on access to Internet resources, and they apply to different situations. For example, decisions to block access to foreign marketplaces and taxi services may be made by the Ministry of Taxes when tax violations are detected. At the same time, the old procedure for blocking websites through decisions of the Ministry of Information continues to apply. However, with regard to disconnecting specific subscribers from the network, Resolution No. 476 is the first regulatory act to introduce such a new restriction.
However, even before 2020, law enforcement agencies had already disconnected the internet and mobile communications of specific individuals prior to their detention as a preventive measure, Sometimes this occurred in preparation for a search or arrest. Such cases occurred, for example, during the detention of politicians on the eve of mass protests. However, in these cases, such disconnections were limited in time and carried out without justification within the framework of any open legal procedure. The new resolution will be a dangerous tool for eliminating people’s access to information and ability to communicate with others.