In recent weeks, Turkmenistan has seen a new wave of large-scale internet censorship. According to sources cited by Turkmen.news, entire subnets with a /16 mask—each containing 65,536 IP addresses—have been added to the country’s blacklist. As a result, hundreds of thousands of websites have become instantly inaccessible to Turkmen users.
Experts and local sources say this latest surge in censorship is not politically motivated: independent media, social networks, and opposition websites have been blocked in Turkmenistan for years. Instead, this new campaign appears to be a “marketing strategy” by cyber security officials, who block online resources in order to sell citizens ways to bypass the restrictions—either individual OpenVPN keys (priced at 1,000 manats, or about $50 per month) or access to a “whitelist” for $2,000 a month.
Previously, internet blackouts were timed to coincide with specific events—such as the “Turkmentel” exhibition or the death of former President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s mother. Now, however, the censors no longer bother to hide their true motives. In informal conversations, they reportedly admit they aim to eliminate competition and increase users’ dependence on paid circumvention services—restrictions that they themselves have imposed.
Turkmen.news journalists have previously identified key figures profiting from the country's internet controls: Maksat Geldiyev, Allanazar Kulnazarov, and Didar Seyidov. “While they and their allies stockpile cash for their next SUV or a bribe to get their child into university, the country loses out on millions of dollars every day—since GDP is directly tied to the development of the digital economy,” the outlet reports.
