Belarus: subscriptions and phone checks

For anyone living in Belarus, travelling to or through it, returning, or waiting for relatives to return.

The 5-minute minimum

• Phones are checked at the Belarusian border on a mass scale, including those of people who never protested. Officers look at Telegram (channels, chats, contacts), Instagram, YouTube, Viber, likes, comments, the photo gallery and calls. They find old subscriptions and reposts the person had forgotten about.
• People are detained and punished for subscribing to, reposting, commenting on or liking 'extremist' material, most often under art. 19.11 of the Administrative Code (a fine or arrest of up to 15 days). Donations and 'assistance' to 'extremist formations' lead to criminal cases (arts. 361-1, 361-2, 361-4 of the Criminal Code).
• The lists of 'extremist' materials and formations keep growing, and the law is applied to actions taken before a designation. To check yourself, see the 'Am I on a list?' section.
• While there is no case, prepare the phone in advance, a few weeks ahead: subscriptions, chats, likes and comments on YouTube and Instagram, gallery, cloud, email. A completely empty phone may raise questions, but if there was no time to prepare, it is still better than your main one.

If you are at risk

• Rights groups advise: if a trip may be dangerous, it is better to postpone it. The risk is higher for those who took part in the 2020 protests, donated, subscribed to 'extremist' channels or have relatives and ties in Ukraine.
• It is safer to travel with a separate phone and new accounts. Don't sign in to your main Telegram on it: signing in brings back all your subscriptions.
• If your phone was taken during a 'talk' with the KGB, GUBOPiK or at the border, treat it as infected. In 2025 ResidentBat spyware was found on a journalist's returned phone: it was installed on Android after officers watched the unlock code being entered. More in 'If your phone was taken and given back'.
• Android: check whether developer options and USB debugging are on, whether there are unknown services under Accessibility, and whether Google Play Protect has been turned off.
• Don't forward material from Belarusian independent media and organisations to people close to you in Belarus: most of them are designated 'extremist' there, and the recipient can be punished.

What not to do

• Don't take a phone you donated from, or one with screenshots, emails and SMS about donations.
• Don't type your unlock code in front of officers unless you have to, and don't leave your phone unlocked in a locker before a 'talk'.
• Don't react or comment in Belarusian independent media channels from your main account if you are going to Belarus.
• Don't remotely wipe a seized phone or laptop (Find My, Find Hub) without talking to a lawyer first: in Belarus too it can be treated as destroying evidence.
• If a case has been opened, a report drawn up or your phone seized, don't delete anything without a lawyer: deletion can be used against you and won't remove what the authorities have already copied.

What traces remain

• Telegram subscriptions, reactions and comments live on its servers and return when you sign in.
• The security services try to recover data deleted on the phone; according to people who have been through checks, special devices are used during inspections.
• Bank transfers to foundations stay on record at the bank.

current as of 26 September 2026. More: Human Constanta: how Belarus's 'extremist' lists work ('extremist formation' in Belarus (since 18.03.2026)); Mediazona Belarus: how phone checks at the border work (05.08.2025); RSF: ResidentBat spyware installed by the Belarusian KGB (December 2025, Russian PDF) (undesirable (in Russia)); RESIDENT.NGO: ResidentBat technical advisory (16.12.2025); Access Now Digital Security Helpline (24/7, Russian spoken)