Cyber security act: Draft changes may revive DSA-style repression – The Daily Star

Cyber security act: Draft changes may revive DSA-style repression  The Daily Star

Proposed amendments to the Cyber Security Act could revive repressive provisions of the Digital Security Act and silence dissent under the guise of protecting women and children, speakers at a roundtable said yesterday. Lawmakers, lawyers, rights activists and journalists made the remarks at a discussion organised by citizens’ platform Voice for Reform at BDBL Bhaban in the capital’s Karwan Bazar. Presenting the keynote, Nabila Idris, a former member of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, questioned whether the proposed provisions served the government’s stated purposes of protecting women and children and ensuring decency in speech. “Cases are not filed on the basis of intent; they are filed on the basis of sections.

Arrests are not being made by looking at the law; the law is being made by looking at the arrests,” she said. Sexual harassment, sextortion, revenge porn and child abuse are already offences under the existing law, she said, while the draft adds vague speech offences such as defamation, belittlement, rumours and misinformation. She also pointed to the absence of a mandatory deadline for removing intimate images shared without consent. Nabila cited around 21 incidents of arrests over online posts even before the proposed amendments had been passed. Those affected included villagers, homemakers, students and two teenagers aged 16 and 17, she said. Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker Mardia Mumtaz