Introduction. The intensive development of information and telecommunication technologies has predetermined the emergence of new challenges to the security of information exchange on the global Internet. Modern communication platforms provide users with the opportunity to express their thoughts and opinions, but such freedom often turns into illegal phenomena. The relevance of studying the adaptability of legal norms in the context of ensuring the safety of citizens in the digital environment is beyond doubt. In the article, the category of «public order» in relation to the Internet is considered as a system of social and legal norms, its structural elements are examined: both legal norms that ensure public order and some deviant manifestations in the Internet communication of communicants. Methods. In conducting the study, the results of which are presented in this article, logical, systemic, functional, systemic-structural, sociological and axiological methods were used. Results. The author, admitting the existence of public order on the Internet, identifies its goals and objectives, formulates a definition of this concept. The role of the state in ensuring public order on the Internet is defined as the desire to achieve harmony between the right of citizens to free access to information and their security in the digital environment.