Corruption and Control: How Turkmenistan turned internet censorship into a business
In July 2021, a sudden drop in Tor usage in Turkmenistan called our attention. Tor would come to understand that this marked the beginning of a new era of censorship and restriction in this post-Soviet country. But let's rewind...
The Tor Community has long been defending internet freedom, running relays and providing bridges to combat internet censorship.
Over the years, the Tor Project has called for action to run more bridges, Snowflake proxies, while we've investigated and adapted our anti-censorship strategies, and shared information about online censorship in Turkmenistan.
Modern censorship circumvention systems are generally built around the concept of "collateral damage", where a censor cannot block access without blocking the entire internet or popular online services. However, in Turkmenistan, the censors' behavior has been strikingly different. They have openly blocked vast parts of the internet without concern for the collateral consequences, sparking curiosity: why do Turkmenistan's censors seem unbothered by the collateral damage their actions cause?
### Turkmenistan in context
Turkmenistan is ruled by the autocratic Berdimuhamedov family. The country consistently ranks at the bottom of global freedom and transparency indexes. In the 2025 Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Index, Turkmenistan placed 174th out of 180. Freedom House gives the country a 1/100 rating for overall freedom. The capital, Ashgabat - often called the "White Marble City" - is both a showcase of authoritarian extravagance and a place where citizens depends on circumvention tools to bypass censorship.
With an official population of about 6 million citizens, or - according to some estimates - less than 3 million, it is clear that millions left the country over the last decade. Main destinations are countries like Turkey and Russia, but other countries too. To reduce the exodus, the Turkmen government asked Turkey to implement visas for Turkmen citizens (the request was fulfilled).
In Turkmenistan, the **corruption is systemic.** It's been the focus of several investigative reportings and documentaries, like The Shadow of the Holy Book. Internet penetration remains among the lowest in the world and also one of the slowest internet in the world.
Human rights violations are systematic with forced labour (including child labour) in the cotton fields. Women are an especially vulnerable group with lower salaries, enforced dress code, and informal restrictions like ban on beauty procedures or extreme difficulties in obtaining a driver's license.
A very small number of activists are ready to talk about what is happening in the country. Even if they leave the country, they still face the risk of being sent back to Turkmenistan, like in the case of bloggers Alisher Sahtov and Abdulla Orusov who lived in Turkey and it seems was deported to Turkmenistan this year.
Many Turkmenistan citizens do not dare to speak openly, fearing for the lives and well-being of their loved ones who still live in Turkmenistan. Methods used inside the country can be seen with the example of 75-years old journalist Soltan Achilova. She was planning to travel to Switzerland to get a Martin Ennals award for human rights defenders. To prevent that, Turkmen authorities tried to poison her and when the attempt failed she was forcibly hospitalized.
While millions of Turkmenistan citizens live abroad, their government does everything to cut the family ties of the country's residents with the diaspora: and severe online censorship is one of their tools.
### Online censorship and the war against the Internet
Since its beginning, the Internet in Turkmenistan has always been restricted and censored. The entire telecommunications sector of the country either belongs to the state itself or to people affiliated with the ruling family. Although the former president has passed a law banning press censorship in 2013, the law exists only on paper. In practice, nearly all social media websites and messaging apps are blocked. Popular services like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, Discord, Signal, IMO, and Telegram are blocked in the country. It was reported by Progres Foundation that this Internet shutdown has potentially costed 8% of Turkmenistan's annual GDP.
In 2021, citizens were literally forced to swear on the Koran that they wouldn't use VPNs. If caught, a fine for using a VPN is 1,500 manats ($80 at the market exchange rate). This is around an average monthly salary. Yet for years, there's been no official list of banned sites.
Measuring online censorship from inside Turkmenistan is nearly impossible due to the extent and scale of their blocking, but sporadic test results appear on OONI Explorer. In 2022, a team of researchers managed to map the regime's censorship using a novel measurement technique that didn't rely on local testing or vantage points. Their finding revelead over 183,000 blocking rules and more than 122,000 domains censored.
### The Internet censorship business in Turkmenistan
The truth came out from an investigative piece by Turkmen.news . The department of Cyber Security from Turkmenistan, the organization responsible for internet censorship, which includes blocking circumvention tools like Tor, is also selling access to the internet on the side. As the article put it: **"Once they have paid the bribe, Turkmen citizens gain full free access to high-speed Internet."**
By 2023, their censorship business scheme had become impossible to ignore. A new report from Turkmen.news revealed that agents from the Cybersecurity Department were selling paid VPNs and and offering IP whitelisting-services they themselves were restricting for the general public.
They weren't just profiting from internet repression; they were creating the demand. In an Orwellian twist, the people blocking access to the internet are the same ones secretly selling it back, at a price most Turkmens can't afford. After the exposé, Turkmen officials even attempted to pay for the article's removal.
In other words, blocking Tor wasn't just about national security or ideology - it was about creating a profitable market niche for the department of 'Cyber Security' themselves. The very people blocking access were the ones selling it back. Tor is free and effective at bypassing censorship. That made it a threat to the profitability of their gray-market VPN service.
### Internet amnesty and censorship in 2025
In mid-2024, things briefly changed. For a few months, internet censorship appeared to relax. Massive IP blocks were lifted, including access to circumvention tools. Even the Tor Project website became briefly reachable from inside Turkmenistan.
This short-lived period was dubbed as "Internet Amnesty". But by December, the online censorship returned, and a new wave of censorship hit, targeting entire IP ranges and online services.
By April 2025, reports confirmed that the gray-market VPN business had resumed. Keys for VPNs were being sold for 1,000 manats per month (about $50 USD), while cheaper weekly 'plans' were offered, but often excluded online services like music and video streaming. And for $2,000 per month, all filters will be removed from your connection. In the words of Turkmen.news analysis:
> "The latest wave of carpet blocking is a kind of marketing campaign by cybersecurity officials. They are deliberately worsening the state of the Internet in order to increase demand for their services."
What's marketed elsewhere as "cybersecurity" is, in Turkmenistan, the opposite: a deliberate disruption of internet access to sustain a profitable racket.
This story is not only about censorship, but state-sponsored extortion, when censors become dealers. Officials of the Department of Cybersecurity are running a corruption scheme, using the tools of surveillance and control to squeeze money from a population already under tight authoritarian rule.
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## Censorship knows no borders – Please share the story
This is an underreported story with implications far beyond one country. Learn more here Turkmenistan's Cybersecurity Department Dealers Openly Sell VPN Services Online and share the post to support the journalists holding power to account. Amplifying their reporting helps build public pressure and ensures these important stories don't disappear into silence.
* censorship
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* community
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