VPNs with servers in Tunisia

A prosecutor, investigating judge or judicial police officer authorised in writing may order stored, traffic or user data, seize systems and collect traffic data in real time (art. 9); a prosecutor or investigating judge may intercept suspects’ communications by written, reasoned decision (art. 10). Whether a VPN operator is a communications service provider under the decree-law is not established.

Online copyright infringement for profit or to harm others carries one month to a year in prison and a fine of 50,000 dinars, or either (art. 25); producing, publishing, supplying or holding pornographic data showing a child carries six years and 50,000 dinars (art. 26). A judgment of August 2011 banning pornographic web content was set aside by the Court of Cassation on 22 February 2012, which sent the case back to the appeal court.

As issued in 2022, article 24 punished with five years and a fine of 50,000 dinars anyone who knowingly used information systems to produce, spread or send false news, rumours or forged documents in order to harm others’ rights, public security or national defence, or to spread terror.

The same penalty covered publishing false items or personal data to defame, harm reputation, cause financial or moral harm, or incite attacks or hate speech, doubled where the target was a public official.

Inkyfada reports that most proceedings under the decree-law rest on this article. According to Webdo, the Official Gazette of 30 September 2026 published a rewritten article 24: a first offence carries a fine of 10,000 to 20,000 dinars instead of imprisonment, and imprisonment of six months and a fine of 50,000 dinars remain for repeat offences.

The 2022 Constitution (art. 30) has the state protect privacy and the confidentiality of correspondence, communications and personal data. The decree-law was issued by the President under presidential decree 2021-117 on exceptional measures. The Supreme Judicial Council was dissolved in February 2022, and on 1 June 2022 a presidential decree dismissed 57 judges and prosecutors.

The Tunis Administrative Tribunal ordered 49 of them reinstated in August 2022; Amnesty International reported in September 2022 that the Ministry of Justice had not complied. The order of the rows is the security score, and a server’s location is not a recommendation.