The Legislative Decree No. 27 generally applies to all businesses carrying out commercial activities in Bahrain, including branches of foreign companies. According to Arts. 8-9 of the Decree, all businesses are required to be registered with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MOIC) and appropriately licensed by the relevant regulated body to carry out particular activities. The government's websites report that these activities include the operations of e-marketplaces (ISIC activity 6312) and retail sales via the internet (ISIC activity 4791).
This is also confirmed by Resolution No. 152/2016, which imposes a licensing requirement for the operation of eMarketplaces, defined as online marketplaces where products of other licensed businesses are displayed, listed, or advertised (i.e. the products are not owned by the commercial registration owner of the eMarketplace).

According to Art. 9.1 of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA)'s Board of Directors Resolution No. 8 of 2009, a licensee shall undertake to retain access-related information for one year from the date of each call that is successfully made between two or more parties, whether it results in conveying call content or not. Moreover, it is reported that, since 2009, the TRA has mandated that all telecommunications companies keep a record of customers’ phone calls, emails, and website visits for up to three years.

Art. 3 of Order No. 43 of 2022 states that controllers should conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) in the following cases:
- Cases stipulated in Art. 22.1 of Law No. 30 of 2018, or a systematic and extensive evaluation of personal aspects relating to natural persons which is based on automated processing, including profiling, and on which decisions are based that produce legal effects concerning the natural person or similarly significantly affect the natural person;
- When processing on a large scale special categories of data or of personal data relating to instituting and pursuing criminal proceedings and related judgements referred to Art. 7 of Law No. 30; or
- When processing amounts to systematically monitoring a publicly accessible area on a large scale.

Art. 78 of the Legislative Decree No. 48 of 2002 Promulgating the Telecommunications Law provides that a licensed operator must provide all technical resources, including telecom equipment, systems, and programs relating to its licensed telecom network that allow security agents to have access to the network for protecting national security. In addition, Art. 79 authorises, in a state of national security or in a declaration of martial law, a competent authority to requisition the telecom services and networks of any licensed operator to address the circumstances. It is unclear whether a court order is required.

Bahrain has a safe harbour regime in place for intermediaries for copyright infringements. Under Law No. 22 of 2006 (Section IX), internet service providers (ISPs) are liable if, through their network or system, they are found to have deliberately instigated a copyright infringement violation, or participated in it to a significant degree, or are found responsible for it, having been aware of the infringing activity this. ISPs are not liable when they do not control, initiate or direct the transmission of the material that takes place through the systems or networks controlled or operated by them or on their behalf; adopted and reasonably applied measures, including the termination (where appropriate) of accounts of subscribers who repeatedly commit violations; abide by the standard technological measures to identify and protect the material; the ISP does not make any change to the material.

The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act governs electronic transactions and establishes a safe harbour regime for intermediaries extending beyond issues of copyright infringement. Section 24 stipulates that an intermediary shall not bear civil or criminal liability for any third-party information contained in electronic records, provided that the intermediary did not originate the information and merely offers access to or storage of it. This exemption from liability is conditional upon the following:
- The intermediary has no knowledge that the information gives rise to civil or criminal liability.
- The intermediary is unaware of any facts or circumstances that would ordinarily indicate the potential for civil or criminal liability.
- Upon acquiring such knowledge, the intermediary promptly removes the information from any information system within their control and ceases to offer or provide access to or storage of the information in question.

Under Resolution No. 13 of 2015, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority requires users to provide identification when registering for telecommunications services. The government prohibits the sale or use of unregistered prepaid SIM cards.

In August 2016, the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (TRA) ordered all telecom companies to employ a centralised system for blocking websites managed by the TRA with Resolution No. 12 of 2016 Promulgating the Internet Safety Regulation. It is reported that Bahraini national regulatory bodies have revoked the operators' licenses that failed to install these monitoring and filtering systems required by government authorities.

It has been reported that the government censors online content and that it blocks access to some websites from inside and outside the country. As of 2023, some mobile live-streaming services, including Ustream and Bambuser, and certain VPNs are blocked. Although some of these websites have undergone rebranding, their original URLs remain on the government’s list of blocked sites. Many Bahraini websites that were blocked in 2017 have ceased to exist online.
Moreover, it is reported that various Iranian news websites are inaccessible, and Qatari websites, including Al-Arab, Al-Raya, and Al-Jazeera, have been blocked since May 2017. These sites experienced a brief period of accessibility in 2021 during discussions aimed at re-establishing ties with Qatar. However, as of May 2023, these Qatari websites have once again become inaccessible across multiple ISPs.

In August 2016, the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (TRA) ordered all telecom companies to employ a centralised system for blocking websites managed by the TRA with Resolution No. 12 of 2016 Promulgating the Internet Safety Regulation. Under the Regulation, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) must ensure that it complies with any Website Compliance Request regarding websites to be blocked within 24 hours of receipt of such a request by the TRA. An ISP must also comply with the Unified Technical Solution to automatically prevent access to all websites recorded on the Prohibited Material List.

The indicator "6.2.4 - Government Internet shut down in practice" of the V-Dem Dataset, which measures whether the government has the technical capacity to actively make internet service cease, thus interrupting domestic access to the internet or whether the government has decided to do so, has a score of 3 in Bahrain for the year 2023. This corresponds to "Rarely but there have been a few occasions throughout the year when the government shut down domestic access to Internet."

In accordance with Art. 1 of Decree No. 68/2016, newspapers are required to obtain licenses from the mass media directorate prior to disseminating content on websites or social media. Additionally, Art. 2 stipulates that outlets must provide a list of their social media accounts and website addresses, as well as the names of those who oversee them, as part of the license application. Furthermore, according to Art. 5, newspapers may not post online videos exceeding two minutes in length and are forbidden from streaming live videos. Art. 6 also stipulates that electronic media must publish the same content as their printed counterparts. Following Art. 86 of Legislative Decree No. 47, those who publish without a licence may be subject to a six-month prison sentence, a fine of 5,000 Bahraini dinars (approx. USD 13,200), or both.

Under Resolution No. 152/2016, Bahrain imposes a licensing requirement for the operation of websites, and web portals. This regulatory framework encompasses the following activities:
- Operation of web sites/mobile applications that use a search engine to generate and maintain extensive databases of Internet addresses and content in an easily searchable format;
- Operation of other websites/mobile applications that act as portals to the Internet, such as media sites providing periodically updated content;
- Operation of websites/mobile applications that employ cloud computing and network orchestration to provision services. For example, websites/mobile applications that connect suppliers with end-users.
It should be noted that Resolution No. 152/2016 is not publicly accessible online.

In accordance with Law No. 81 of 2006 with respect to Approving the Common Industrial Law of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Bahrain imposes a regime for import licensing for certain products. Importers of several products must obtain an industrial licence from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Tourism (MoICT), which can be issued only to a firm or an individual resident in Bahrain. It is valid for one year (renewable) and is transferable between importers. This requirement applies to importers of several products, including electric motors, generators, transformers, and electricity distribution and control apparatus; batteries and accumulators; wiring and wiring devices; electric lighting equipment; domestic appliances, other electric equipment; and machinery and equipment.

In accordance with Law No. 81 of 2006 with respect to Approving the Common Industrial Law of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Bahrain imposes a regime for import licensing for certain products. Importers of several products must obtain an industrial licence from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Tourism (MoICT), which can be issued only to a firm or an individual resident in Bahrain. It is valid for one year (renewable) and is transferable between importers. This requirement applies to importers of several products, including electric motors, generators, transformers, and electricity distribution and control apparatus; batteries and accumulators; wiring and wiring devices; electric lighting equipment; domestic appliances, other electric equipment; and machinery and equipment.