The chief of the State Authority for Control in the Sphere of Informatization and Telecommunications (Uzkomnazorat) Golibsher Ziyaev was sacked by the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev "for erroneous and uncoordinated actions," said the president’s spokesman Sherzod Asadov.

“A probe will be launchedon the incident. According to the results of the investigation, appropriate measures of responsibility will be applied to all the responsible leaders responsible for the incident, ”he said.

Earlier it Golibsher Ziyaev was dismissed by a decree of the Prime Minister. The decision was made in connection with the restriction by the Authority of access to social networks, including Telegram, Facebook, YouTube, Odnoklassniki and others.

In less than three hours, the restrictions were lifted. Sherzod Asadov said that President Shavkat Mirziyoyev "was informed about the unilateral, not fully thought out actions of Uzkomnazorat, taken on the instruction of the government."

Golibsher Ziyaev was named the chief of Uzkomnazorat in September last year.

Background

On January 14, the president signed amendments to the Personal data law with article 27-1 “Special conditions for processing personal data of citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan. According to it, the servers on which the personal data of citizens of Uzbekistan are processed must be located inside the country. The amendment took effect in mid-April.

In May, Uzkomnazorat ordered the owners of social networks Mail.ru Group / VK (VKontakte), Twitter and Tencent (WeChat) to comply with Article 27-1 of the Law on Personal Data.

In early July, Uzkomnazorat restricted access to TikTok, Twitter, VKontakte, WeChat and the Skype messenger.

On October 29, the president signed a law that toughens penalties for violating personal data laws. After three months, social networks to which access is limited can be brought to administrative and criminal liability.