Libya

Summary

Libya's legal framework for web crawling is minimal and profoundly uncertain due to ongoing armed conflict, the absence of a unified government, and thin enforcement infrastructure. There is no comprehensive data-protection law and no dedicated data-protection authority. The principal relevant statute is Law No. 5/2022 on Combating Cybercrimes (enacted September 2022 by the House of Representatives), which criminalises unauthorised access to computer systems and information networks. The law carries relatively modest penalties for basic unauthorised access (up to one year imprisonment or a fine) but contains extremely severe provisions (up to 15 years) for content offences such as sharing information deemed to threaten security or public safety. Human rights organisations (HRW, Article 19, OMCT) have condemned the law as vague and overbroad. Law No. 6/2022 on Electronic Transactions provides ancillary data-handling principles. Libya has not ratified the AU Malabo Convention; its status on signing is unclear. In practice, formal legal enforcement of scraping-specific rules is unlikely given the state of governance, but exposure to arbitrary application of the cybercrime law is real. Treat as minimal_or_unclear with human review required.