The State Inspectorate for Control in the Sphere of Informatization and Telecommunications of Uzbekistan (Uzkomnazorat) restricted the work of the WeChat messenger, follows from the published register of the department.
The inspectorate reported on claims due to “violation of the law in the processing of personal data” of citizens of the country on July 2. But that press release did not say that WeChat had been added to the violator's roster. The message also noted that the restrictions will be lifted after “elimination of the identified deficiencies.”
The register also contains the social networks VKontakte, Twitter, Skype and TikTok. Their users have already complained about low speed and resource outages.
In mid-May, the Uzbek authorities warned that foreign social networks are required to comply with Uzbek legislation, namely, to store personal data of citizens only on the territory of the country. In addition, social networks must register databases in a special state register. The authorities' warning referred to WeChat, Facebook, Instagram, WhatApp, Telegram, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Twitter, TikTok, Skype and Yandex services – Maps, Taxi, Money and Messenger. Otherwise, the services were threatened with liability.
The law on the protection of personal data in Uzbekistan entered into force on April 15.
WeChat is a messenger developed by the Chinese company Tencent and is mainly used by Chinese citizens. In addition to the function of sending messages and making audio calls, the application supports the conduct of domestic money transactions, and also allows you to verify the identity of the owner when crossing the border between China and Hong Kong.
