Proposed Cyber Protection Act Amendments Threaten Free Expression: Civic Dialogue

Expressing profound alarm over widening restrictions on constitutional civil liberties, prominent rights defenders, legal analysts, and civil society leaders have warned that the proposed amendments to the Cyber Protection Act will aggressively muzzle free speech and independent journalism rather than safeguarding digital infrastructure. Speakers asserted that the statutory revisions are engineered to institutionalize the suppression of democratic dissent and expand state harassment of ordinary citizens under the guise of policing cybercrime.

The assessment was delivered on Tuesday morning, 27 October 2026, at a national civic dialogue convened at the BDBL Bhaban in Karwan Bazar, Dhaka. The symposium was jointly hosted by seven human rights and advocacy organizations: Voice for Reform, Drik, Nagorik Coalition, Human Rights Support Society (HRSS), Justice and Rights Alliance (JRA), DSA Victim Network, and Bangladesh America Alliance.

Titled "Cyber Protection or Silencing Voices? In Whose Interest Are New Limits on Expression and Legal Amendments Being Framed?", the conference was presided over by photographer-activist Shahidul Alam and moderated by Voice for Reform Co-coordinator Fahim Mashroor.

Delivering the keynote address, Fahim Mashroor noted that while cyber legislation should technically prioritize mitigation against systemic vulnerabilities like unauthorized network intrusions, financial identity theft, and corporate phishing, authorities are reconfiguring it into an instrument for weaponizing the penal code against dissenters—replicating the architecture of the repealed Digital Security Act (DSA). He recommended carving out provisions concerning the protection of women and minors and transposing them into the dedicated Prevention of Oppression Against Women and Children Act.

National Citizen's Party (NCP) Member Secretary and Member of Parliament Akhtar Hossain remarked that the legislative draft is effectively designed as a "Government Protection Act." Citing the recent arrest of micro-entrepreneur Sathi Akhter in Valuka, Mymensingh, for criticizing administrative policy, he stated that the state apparatus is enforcing absolute information hegemony against dissenting viewpoints.

Former Special Assistant to the Chief Advisor Monir Haider warned that executive tendencies are edging closer toward authoritarian overreach, observing that the current administration is moving faster to suppress civic spaces than its political predecessors.

Presenting statistical evidence on arbitrary enforcement, rights researcher and former Commission on Enforced Disappearances member Dr. Nabila Idris disclosed that 63 percent of arrests executed under cyber legislation since the February 2026 national elections stemmed directly from citizens critiquing the Prime Minister, cabinet members, or political figures. She warned that the amendments are strategically structured to widen statutory arrest powers to retroactively justify politically motivated detentions.

Former head of the Media Reform Commission Kamal Ahmed argued that statutory definitions must separate legitimate financial or illicit cyber offences from the fundamental right to free expression. He stressed that political criticism and governance dissent cannot be conflated with criminal defamation. Activist Dr. Taznoova Zabeen pointed out that while law enforcement mobilizes aggressively against citizens voicing political opinions, response times remain stagnant for women confronting online harassment and cyber-bullying.

The open forum included remarks from Sada Editor Shafiqul Alam, Rashtra Sangskar Andolon's Didar Bhuiyan, NCP's Sarwar Tushar, Nagorik Coalition's Hasib Uddin Hossain, and HRSS Executive Director Ejaz Islam. Closing the plenary, Shahidul Alam cautioned the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) against abandoning its pre-election governance pledges, emphasizing that state sovereignty resides with its citizenry and demanding that repressive legislative clauses be immediately shelved, official sources confirmed.

//DBTech/FMPR/SME/MVNO//