DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, May 14, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Tajikistan on Wednesday repealed a law that had seen more than 1,500 people jailed for liking or commenting on social media posts the authorities deemed to be illegal, in a rare loosening of restrictions on freedom of speech.

Social media users faced criminal liability for engaging with "terrorist" or "extremist" content in the Central Asian state, which, like others in the region, regularly uses such language to target its political opponents, independent civil society and journalists.

President Emomali Rakhmon approved amendments to "abolish criminal liability for posting 'likes' or similar symbols (emojis) on social media," his office said Wednesday.

However, the authorities did not specify whether the law would have a retroactive effect, leaving unclear the fate of those already imprisoned.

Last year Rakhmon criticised how the law was being enforced, slamming police for "bringing criminal charges against (people) without any basis. These actions must stop."

The Tajikistan prosecutor's office said 1,507 people were currently serving sentences after being convicted of "liking videos and internet posts and then publishing comments with terrorist or extremist content."

Rakhmon has ruled the impoverished mountainous country, which borders China, Afghanistan and fellow ex-Soviet Central Asian nations, since 1992.

He claims credit for reconciling Tajikistan after a five-year civil war following the break-up of the Soviet Union, but independent rights groups and international observers say he has ushered in a wave of repression.

The country has virtually no opposition or independent media, with the Freedom House democracy tracking NGO calling it an "authoritarian regime" that "severely restricts political rights and civil liberties."