Cyber Security Act: Repressive provisions of DSA prevail, says Amnesty's review 

The proposed Cyber Security Act retains the repressive provisions of the Digital Security Act. International human rights organisation Amnesty International made this observation after reviewing the draft of the cyber security law. 

The 25-page review titled Bangladesh: Open letter to the government: Feedback on proposed “Cyber Security Act” was published on Amnesty International's website on Tuesday. 

It said that after initially reviewing the draft of the law, the agency felt that it retained the repressive provisions of the DSA which have persistently been used to threaten and restrict the right to freedom of expression in Bangladesh. 

Referring to Article 6 of the Cyber Security Act (CSA), the agency says, "The draft law retains all but one of the offences contained in the DSA verbatim. The only changes the CSA makes are related to sentencing, which can be summarised as follows: lowering the maximum applicable prison sentence for eight offences, removing a sentence of imprisonment for two offences, increasing the maximum applicable fine for three offences and removing the higher applicable penalty for all repeat offences.” 

Sections 25, (publication of ‘false or offensive information’), 29 (publication of ‘defamatory information’), and 31 (punishment for ‘deteriorating law and order’) of the DSA remain intact verbatim in the draft Cyber Security Act, Amnesty International said in their review. 

The agency also pointed out that Certain vague and overbroad terms used in Section 25 (such as ‘affect the image or reputation of the state’ or ‘spread confusion’) remain undefined in the list of definitions in section 2 or elsewhere in the CSA. Apart from this, Section 29 remains intact as in DSA. In this case the only change has been made in the provision of fines instead of imprisonment.

Section 31 of the Cyber Security Act states that if a person intentionally publishes or broadcasts on a website or in digital format anything which “creates hostility, hatred or prejudice among different classes or communities” or “destroys communal harmony or creates unrest or disorder or deteriorates law and order”, the person shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding seven years, or with fine not exceeding Tk 500,000 or with both. Amnesty International expressed its concern that there is a risk of arbitrary application of this section due to lack of specific definition in this case.

According to Amnesty International, “CSA similarly retains Sections 21 and 28 of the DSA verbatim which criminalise ‘making any kind of propaganda or campaign against liberation war, spirit of liberation war, father of the nation, national anthem or national flag’ and ‘publication, broadcast, etc. of information in website or in any electronic format that hurts the religious values or sentiment’ respectively.” 

According to the agency, Section 42 of the CSA is identical to Section 43 of the DSA and continues to authorise any police officer to search premises, to seize computers and similar hardware, and to search the body of a person and to arrest a person present in that place — without a warrant.  

Amnesty International states that the Cyber Security Act bears resemblance to both the prior Digital Security Act and the Information and Communications Technology Act. This new legislation could potentially be employed for purposes of intimidating, harassing, arbitrarily arresting journalists, and suppressing dissent.