State Security Service detects over 49,000 extremist online resources in 2026

According to the head of the SSS, about 43,000 such resources were counted in 2025. The speech was delivered at the first meeting of the expert SCO Plus Security Dialogue. The increase in the figure, Kurbanov believes, indicates the intensifying use of the internet to propagate radical ideas. He also listed what terrorist and extremist organizations turn to digital technologies for: advancing ideology, recruitment, seeking funding, as well as planning and committing terrorist attacks.

According to the SSS chairman, over the period of the National Strategy for Countering Extremism and Terrorism for 2021–2026, the country managed to improve interagency and international cooperation. Uzbekistan ranks 96th in the Global Terrorism Index for 2026, which corresponds to a low impact of terrorism.

As reported by a Gazeta.uz correspondent, Kurbanov stated that "radicalization does not happen overnight, but is a complex social process," and blocking and deleting content alone is not enough to prevent it. Uzbekistan proposed creating a dedicated mechanism within the SCO to exchange best practices for preventing online radicalization, developing digital educational programs on media literacy for youth, as well as establishing cooperation between competent authorities and the administrations of leading digital platforms with UN support to monitor, block, and remove terrorist content. The head of the SSS named preventing the use of artificial intelligence for terrorist purposes as another area of cooperation.