The highly debated Digital security Act 2018 is being scrapped. Instead, the Cyber Security Act 2023 is being enacted. This decision was taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday morning.
Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar said that the meeting decided to repeal the Digital Security Act and make a new law. The draft of the new law was also presented in the meeting.
Earlier, the Law Minister Anisul Haque said last Wednesday that the Digital Security Act-2018 will not be repealed or changed. But the process to amend the law to prevent misuse is underway, which will be completed by next September.
However, at the end of Monday’s meeting, the law minister said that a decision has been taken to repeal the Digital Security Act-2018. It will now be replaced by the ‘Cyber Security Act 2023’.
The Minister said that the Digital Security Act is being scrapped. Many sections of this Act will be incorporated in the new Cyber Security Act. Major amendments will be brought in some clauses. The Digital Security Act provided for imprisonment charges for defamation of news coverage. The new law will change that and provide for fines instead of imprisonment. Just as there are issues of fines in civil cases, there will be issues in journalism. And when there is a new cyber security law, there will be no digital security act.
It may be noted that, in 2018, the Digital Security Act was enacted to prevent the spread of hatred against religious or ethnic minorities through social media, print media or any other electronic media in the context of communalism and terrorist propaganda of extremism. However, the law was criticized for misuse from the very beginning.
The people concerned have long been demanding the cancellation of the Digital Security Act to ensure the protection of the freedom of the media, the right to freedom of thought and expression, and above all to ensure the protection of the fundamental rights of people. In addition, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called on the Bangladesh government to immediately suspend the implementation of the Digital Security Act on April 1.
