VPNs with servers in Mexico

Operators must also help security and justice authorities locate terminal equipment in real time and keep a unit available at all times for requests for information, geolocation and interception. Only a federal judicial authority may authorise interception, on the request of a federal authority or a state public prosecutor.

Article 182 also binds application and content service providers to comply with every written, reasoned order of the competent authority. Whether a VPN operator is within articles 182 and 183 is not established.

The law prohibits radio and television licensees from broadcasting political, ideological or commercial propaganda of foreign governments or entities, with exceptions for tourism, culture and sport; the prohibition extends to programmers, signal operators and digital platforms whose content is available in Mexico. The power to block digital platforms that an earlier text gave the Agency was removed before enactment.

Article 199 octies of the Federal Criminal Code, added in June 2021, punishes sharing or publishing intimate sexual images, video or audio of a person without consent, and recording or producing such material, with three to six years’ imprisonment and a fine of 500 to 1,000 units of account.

To trace a user, articles 182 and 183 oblige operators to answer a reasoned written order, deliver retained records within 24 hours of notice and help locate devices in real time. A separate law on a national investigation and intelligence system, approved by Congress on 1 July 2025, lets the security ministry request telephone and biometric data and telecommunications providers’ records from private parties.

In January 2024 a federal judge acquitted the only person charged over the interception of a journalist’s phone with Pegasus spyware, for lack of evidence, while acknowledging that the journalist had been spied on, and ordered the Attorney General’s office to keep investigating.

The order of the rows is the security score, and a server’s location is not a recommendation.