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Unblocked websites 
For years, many critical websites have been blocked in Uzbekistan. Mostly it happened in 2005. This 
legacy of Karimov initially remained under the next president, and it took some time before they 
began to be unblocked. Some of them were unblocked in 2017, some of them in 2018 and finally by 
May 2019 most of them were unblocked.  
 
A dangerous step backwards happened in September 2018 when Facebook and YouTube were 
blocked for users in Uzbekistan. Officially the government explained it as a 'temporary problem on 
their side', blaming Facebook and YouTube for problems with a connection. Both websites were 
unblocked in February 2019, right after the former Chief of the National Security Service, Ikhtiyor 
Abdullaev, was dismissed and put under arrest. These two events were never officially connected 
but Facebook and YouTube were never blocked again. 
 
Finally, in May 2019 most of the websites had been unblocked, including Ferghana.ru, 
Uzmetronom.com, AsiaTerra.info, Eurasianet.com, Voice of America, BBC Uzbek and Deutsche 
Welle. This decision was hailed by Reporters Without Borders.
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 However, the only major website 
which is still blocked is Ozodlik, the Uzbek service of RFE/RL. While the website of RFE/RL works 
normally, only the Uzbek service page is inaccessible from Uzbekistan. The reason has not been 
officially explained.