Turkmenistan’s authoritarian government has always tightly controlled information in the isolated country by monitoring and blocking news websites, social media platforms, and messaging apps.
But many Turkmen continue to use VPN (virtual private network) and other tools to circumvent the draconian Internet restrictions.
In their latest bid to regulate what Turkmen can see online, state officials recently summoned bloggers and influencers in several regions to tell them to promote the government’s narrative of the “happy and prosperous” country of Turkmenistan.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, some of the bloggers told RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service that police also warned them that if they shared any content that was critical of the government they could go to jail.
Officials also warned them that even liking or commenting on such content is prohibited and could be seen as an “anti-government activity,” they said.
Those summoned by police are well-known Turkmen influencers who use Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to share videos, promote services and products, talk about themselves, or express their opinion on different subjects.
They told RFE/RL that police now want them to only post content that shows Turkmenistan in a positive light, for example depicting happy children or shiny new buildings.
The country’s state media and government websites report only on positive events -- such as the unveilings of new bazaars, schools, or hospitals; joyous families moving into a new house, or nicely dressed older citizens blessing the start of the harvest season.
The Turkmen police have not commented on the bloggers' claims. (file photo)
Police and other officials did not return comment when asked by the Turkmen Service about the bloggers’ claims.
Local sources link the latest efforts by police to a recent viral video that purportedly shows a Turkmen police officer ripping his own epaulet and blaming it on a driver to extort a bribe.
A young policeman appears to write a ticket while speaking to the driver of a car that was pulled over to the side of a highway.
Apparently unaware he was being filmed, the officer rips the insignia from his right shoulder and flings it on the car before blaming the driver for it.
“You just tore off my epaulet, that is not allowed,” the officer tells the driver. He then apparently realizes he is being filmed by some bystanders and demands they stop recording.
The officer and driver haven’t been identified and it’s not known when or where the footage was recorded. It appeared on social media on June 3. The vehicle’s license plates show it was registered in Lebap Province.
Unannounced Raids
Authorities didn’t comment publicly about the video.
Law enforcement officials, in the meantime, continue to conduct unannounced raids on schools and state agencies to check the students’ and employees’ mobile phones for any material deemed anti-government.
Turkmen authorities often demand that students sign statements saying they won’t use VPNs or other tools to try to access banned sites.
A recent study found that Turkmenistan has blocked more than 122,000 web domains.
An Internet cafe in Ashgabat (file photo)
The Central Asian country has repeatedly been cited for having the slowest Internet in the world.
The U.K.-based Cable.co.uk said in a report on worldwide broadband speed that Turkmenistan, with an average Internet speed of 0.50 megabits per second (Mbps), was the slowest of all 224 countries surveyed in 2021.
In Turkmenistan, it took some 22 hours and 34 minutes to download a 5-gigabyte movie file.