VPNs with servers in Yemen

The law makes the state, through the ministry, the only party entitled to establish and operate telecommunications facilities, with power to delegate (art. 2). Whether any duty to retain data applies, or reaches a VPN operator, is not established.

Article 53 of the Constitution guarantees the freedom and confidentiality of mail, telephone, telegram and other means of communication, which may not be censored, searched or confiscated except in cases specified by law and by court order. The amended 1991 law likewise allows monitoring of calls and messages only with prior written permission of the judicial authority (art. 5).

According to the Sana’a Center, the state’s Public Telecom Corporation is the only landline operator and, with TeleYemen, one of the main internet providers; Yemen Mobile is majority-owned by the state. Aden Net began operating at the end of 2018, and the Center describes competing policies and demands by the authorities in Sana’a and Aden. SMEX reports that Yemen.Net, controlled by the Houthi authorities, blocked Instagram in late 2019.

Article 53 requires a court order for interception, and a Yemeni lawyer told SMEX in 2021 that blocking without one is unconstitutional. The 1990 Press and Publications Law requires publications to operate within Islamic creed, the Constitution and national unity.

The amended 1991 law lets the minister, on the President’s instructions when an emergency is declared or national safety is threatened, cut some telephone or telegraph circuits for set periods or until further notice (art. 5).

In April 2008, according to the OpenNet Initiative, the Ministry of Information declared that the Penal Code would be used to prosecute writers who publish on the internet content that “incites hatred” or “harms national interests”. The 1990 Press and Publications Law has been used to prosecute journalists and to shut down publications.

The OpenNet Initiative’s study of 2009 recorded that internet cafe owners were ordered to remove partitions and make screens visible to the operator, and that users in some cases had to give personal information; a police station ordered cafes in October 2007 to close at midnight and to ask users for their identity cards.

In 2008, according to the OpenNet Initiative, a court overruled the Ministry of Information’s decision to revoke a newspaper’s licence and fined the ministry. The order of the rows is the security score, and a server’s location is not a recommendation.