Online safety & content laws in Uruguay (2026)
Online safety rules in Uruguay: partial.
Uruguay has partial online-safety rules: a 2024 cybercrime statute criminalises online harassment, fraud and unauthorised access, and a GDPR-aligned data-protection law provides baseline privacy rights. However, no comprehensive online-safety regime (equivalent to the EU DSA or UK OSA) exists; platform intermediary liability is uncodified, age-verification requirements are absent, and a parliamentary proposal to democratically regulate large digital platforms received by the Senate in late 2025 had not been enacted as of mid-2026.
Legal framework
Law No. 20.327 (Cybercrime, 2024); Law No. 18.331 (Data Protection, 2008/updated 2019); no comprehensive online-safety or platform-liability law in force
Key points: internet & online safety in Uruguay
Cybercrime Law (2024)
Law No. 20.327, enacted 23 August 2024, criminalises cyberstalking, computer fraud, identity theft, unauthorised data access and system damage, with aggravated penalties when victims are minors or vulnerable persons. It aligns Uruguay with the Budapest Convention framework.
No platform-liability framework
Uruguay has no enacted intermediary-liability statute. Bills have been debated in Parliament but no law granting or restricting platform immunity for third-party content has passed, leaving the legal position unsettled.
No age-verification or minors' content-moderation duty
Online platforms face no legal obligation to verify user age or obtain parental consent before providing services. Platforms are also not required to screen or remove child sexual exploitation material under any existing regulatory mandate.
Data protection (GDPR-aligned, minor-specific gaps)
Law No. 18.331 and its 2019 updates align Uruguayan data protection broadly with GDPR, but the reform omitted GDPR Article 8 provisions on children's data, leaving no sector-specific online protection for minors. Decree 64/020 requires privacy-impact assessments when processing minors' data.
Big-tech regulation proposal (2025, pending)
In October 2025 Uruguay's Senate received a civil-society proposal, 'Bases para una regulación democrática de las grandes plataformas digitales', aimed at governing content moderation and free expression on large platforms. As of mid-2026 no bill had been voted into law.
Internet largely open; high Freedom House rating
Uruguay consistently scores among the freest countries in the Americas for internet access and expression. The state does not engage in systematic content blocking; limited ISP-level blocking of torrent sites is the main documented restriction. Freedom House rated Uruguay 'Free' in both Freedom in the World 2025 and 2026.
Sources
- compliancelatam.legal/en/uruguay-parliament-approves-legislation-on-cybercrime/
- inta.org/perspectives/features/cybercrime-law-bolsters-uruguays-campaign-again
- castellan.com.uy/en/news/four-months-after-the-cybercrime-law-in-uruguay-impacts-and-i
- dlapiperdataprotection.com/index.html?t=law&c=UY
- globalchildexploitationpolicy.org/content/gpp-ncmec/us/en/legal-summaries/uruguay.html
- jaaklac.org/blog/data-protection-uruguay/
- whitecase.com/publications/insight/latin-america-focus-fall-2022-intermediary-liabi
- datysoc.org/2025/10/21/senado-de-uruguay-recibe-propuesta-de-bases-y-principios-d
- freedomhouse.org/country/uruguay/freedom-world/2025
- freedomhouse.org/country/uruguay/freedom-world/2026
- internetsociety.org/resources/doc/2020/intermediary-liability-survey-latin-america/
Next for Uruguay: CybersecuritySectoral rules
Next topicOrientation, not legal advice: verify against the primary sources linked above. Last verified 24 May 2026. Methodology & how to cite · State of Technology Regulation 2026