News

An online news platform in Azerbaijan, had its Facebook page hacked by unknown hackers. The incident was reported by the editor-in-chief Samira Gasimli via a Facebook post. Translation: “Dear RLC followers, For the past two months we have been working on new shows and formats. We are getting ready to release new, more interesting, and […]

Nurlan Jafarli, an Azerbaijani blogger was sentenced to 15 days in administrative detention for disobeying police and petty hooliganism according to reporting by MeydanTV.  Jafarli was arrested during a protest outside the Ministry of Justice on March 30. According to the reports, Jafarli, who was among the journalists covering the protest, shared via his Facebook […]

Azerbaijan Internet Watch was launched around the time when more evidence kept emerging, on the use of authoritarian technology in Azerbaijan. This technology allowed the perpetrator(s) (in most cases identified as an institution or individual affiliated with the government of Azerbaijan] to target Azerbaijan’s civil society. These revelations marked a significant shift in the way […]

In this final installment of legal analysis, we offer an overview of some of the key developments covered over the last year with relevant updates within what is seemingly becoming a restrictive internet freedom environment. Summary From gradually declining space for online media, the visible pattern of offline persecution for online speech, to the lack […]

[Update] On March 9, Hajiyev told his lawyer, that the messages leaked were fabricated, while some were more than ten years old. The imprisoned activist also said, he suspects his device was infected with Pegasus and this is how the authorities were able to extract the information they have been disseminating online via Telegram channels. […]

Azerbaijan is known to block access to independent news media websites – we previously reported on this in July 2021. At the time, we analyzed OONI measurements collected from Azerbaijan between January 2020 to May 2021 and found that ISPs in Azerbaijan were blocking access to several independent news media and circumvention tool sites. We […]

Member of the opposition Popular Front party, Zaur Usubov, was arrested on February 21 and sentenced to 25 days in administrative detention according to reporting by Turan News Agency. The activist was officially charged with an all too common article – resisting police.  Popular Front said, Usubov, was arrested over critical of the authorities’ social […]

In the last decade, the rise of the repressive policy by the government of Azerbaijan against digital rights necessitates the discussion of the legislation and legal remedy aspects of it. As such, in our following legal review, together with a legal expert, we chose to focus on how the state has been resorting to unlawful […]

Mahir Azimov, 40, is a member of the Muslim Union Movement. Azimov was arrested on drug possession charges according to reporting by Azadliq Radio, Azerbaijan Service for Radio Liberty. But activist claims the accusations are bogus, and that the real reason behind his arrest was his online activism – namely, critical posts on the state […]

The following overview covers some of the prolific trends which illustrate the scope of digital authoritarianism and information controls in Azerbaijan observed and documented in the past year.  Introduction  This report covers the online attacks targeting personal information and devices of human rights defenders, activists, and democracy advocates in 2022. The data is collected through […]