VPNs with servers in Lebanon

Under art. 9 the Minister of Interior or of Defence may authorise interception, with the Prime Minister’s approval, to gather information against terrorism, crimes against state security and organised crime. Law 81 of 2018 on electronic transactions and personal data adds cybercrime offences (arts. 110 illegal access, 112 data interference) and has the prosecution or a judicial authority decide seizures of digital evidence (art. 121). Whether a VPN operator is covered is not established.

Websites in Lebanon have been blocked on orders from the Minister of Telecommunications, from the Public Prosecution and from a judge, carried out by internet providers through the state operator Ogero; the lists of blocked sites are not published. A 2014 order covered six pornographic sites, and a 2019 order against a dating app followed a court decision.

Insult and defamation are criminal under the Penal Code, and the Publications Law and the Military Code of Justice carry insult provisions too. Human Rights Watch puts the penalty for defamation of public officials at up to a year; Amnesty International reports up to three years for the defamation provisions. The Internal Security Forces’ Cybercrimes Bureau investigated 1,684 insult and defamation cases between January 2019 and March 2024.

The Bureau asks the person concerned to remove the content or sign a non-repetition pledge, which the Forces say happens under judicial oversight; General Security, State Security and Military Intelligence also investigate such complaints.

Art. 16 of Law 140 entrusts the legality check on administrative interception decisions to an independent body of the First President of the Court of Cassation, the President of the Council of State and the President of the Court of Audit; decisions are notified to it within forty-eight hours.

A joint civil-society submission to the UN Human Rights Committee, citing a retired President of the Court of Audits, says that review is merely symbolic in practice and that the Prime Minister authorises interceptions directly.

The same submission records that in September 2014 the Council of Ministers gave the security agencies full access to telecommunications data, extended in April 2016 for a year. The order of the rows is the security score, and a server’s location is not a recommendation.