The indicator "7.2.4 - 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 1 in Turkmenistan for the year 2024. This corresponds to "The government shut down domestic access to the Internet numerous times this year."

Art. 22 of the Law on Licensing of Certain Types of Activities in Turkmenistan outlines that licenses are required for specific activities and operations specified by law, including the following:
- activities in the field of communications;
- activities in the field of cybersecurity; and
- publishing activities.

Art. 22.19 of Law No. 205-VI of Turkmenistan, "On licensing of certain types of activities," provides that communications activities must be licensed. According to Art. 3 of Law No. 205-VI, foreign natural and legal persons (including their branches) and stateless persons are entitled to obtain a license under the same conditions and procedures as natural and legal persons of Turkmenistan. Art. 47.1 of Law No. 93-IV provides that telecommunications operators are obliged to carry out activities in the field of licensed communications. Despite the regime appearing to be non-discriminatory in the regulatory texts, it is reported that the government exercises tight control and significant management over the country's telecommunications sector. Currently, only one major mobile telecommunications company is operating in the country, namely Altyn Asyr, a subsidiary of the state-owned Türkmenaragatnaşyk. In addition, it is reported that only one foreign provider, Mobile Telesystems of Russia, has received a license in the past. However, the licence was not renewed in September 2017, resulting in its disconnection from the country's network.

Turkmenistan has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments. In fact, Turkmenistan is not a member of the WTO.

Turkmenistan has a telecommunications authority: the Agency for Transport and Communications (Turkmenaragatnashyk). However, the decision-making process of this entity is not fully independent from the government, given that the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan governs it.

According to Art. 17.2 of Law No. 519-V, the transborder transfer of personal data to the territory of foreign countries shall only take place if those countries guarantee the protection of personal data. In addition, Art. 17.3. points out that the cross-border transfer of personal data to the territory of foreign countries that do not ensure the protection of personal data may be carried out in the following cases: 1) if the data subject has given their written consent to the cross-border transfer of his personal data; 2) if international agreements approved by Turkmenistan provides for it; 3) if provided by the laws of Turkmenistan, if it is necessary for the purposes of protecting the principles of constitutional structure, human and civil rights and freedoms, public health and morals, public order, protecting the country and ensuring state security; 4) to protect the life, health, other legal interests, constitutional rights and freedoms of the data subject or other persons, if it is not possible to obtain the data subject's consent. Otherwise, pursuant to Art. 17.4, the international transfer of personal data abroad may be prohibited or restricted by the legislation of Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan has not joined any agreement with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders.

Act No. 519-V provides a comprehensive regime of data protection in Turkmenistan. It provides for data subject rights, data controller obligations, data transfer restrictions, and general principles for the collection and processing of personal information. It does not, however, contain data breach notification requirements, nor does it address the appointment of data protection officers. In addition to Act No. 519-V, the Code for Criminal Liability of 10 May 2010 No. 104-IV provides protection against cybercrimes, and further provisions applicable to data protection can be found in other legislation, such as the Code of Turkmenistan of 29 August 2013 No. 422-IV on Administrative offences.

Art. 13 of Law No. 226-VI contains provisions for storing electronic documents and archives of electronic documents. Electronic documents must be stored on an electronic storage medium in a form that allows their integrity and authenticity to be verified on the applicable medium. The obligation to store electronic documents lies with the involved parties of electronic document management. This includes any party, whether public or private, that owns the documents, or in whose interests they are to be used, or by whom they are to be stored, protected, blocked or removed, and so forth. Subjects of electronic document management can ensure the storage of electronic documents independently and use the services of intermediaries, archival institutions, and other institutions in electronic document management. In addition, Art. 56 provides that the body considering disputes between the subjects of electronic documents, electronic document flow and digital services shall have the right to demand from all subjects involved in the compilation, transmission, receipt, processing and storage of electronic documents the necessary materials and documents concerning the subject of the dispute.
Art. 20 of Law No. 392-IV requires documents in electronic form to be retained for three years.

Turkmenistan does not mandate functional or accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market.

Art. 43.2 of Law No. 629-V states that, unless otherwise provided by international treaties to which Turkmenistan is a party, foreign persons, as well as citizens of Turkmenistan residing outside the territory of Turkmenistan or having their permanent residence outside the territory of Turkmenistan, can exercise their rights in relations with Turkmenpatent (which is the State Service for Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan) only through patent attorneys registered at Turkmenpatent.

Art. 16 of Law No. 629-V establishes that an application for a patent or a limited patent shall be submitted in the State language (Turkmen). Other application documents may be submitted in another language, accompanied by their translation into the State language.

Art. 43.2 of Law No. 629-V states that, unless otherwise provided by international treaties to which Turkmenistan is a party, foreign persons, as well as citizens of Turkmenistan residing outside the territory of Turkmenistan or having their permanent residence outside the territory of Turkmenistan, can exercise their rights in relations with Turkmenpatent (which is the State Service for Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan) only through patent attorneys registered at Turkmenpatent.

Turkmenistan is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). However, the country does not consider itself bound by Art. 59 related to disputes. It should be noted that this treaty was signed in 1970, at a time when Turkmenistan was part of the Soviet Union. Therefore, in 1995, when Turkmenistan became independent, it issued the declaration of continued application, and the date of entry into force was given as the date of independence, which was December 1991.

Turkmenistan has a copyright regime under the Law No. 257-IV. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Chapter 3 lists the exceptions, which include reproduction for personal use, use of works for informational, scientific, educational and other purposes, use of works by libraries, archives and academic institutions (reprographic reproduction), reproduction of computer programs and databases, and free short-term recording by broadcasting organisations.