Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has expressed dismay and concern over the hasty passage of the Cyber Security Act (CSA) 2023, which contains essentially similar restrictive clauses in the name of repealing the Digital Security Act. The new law, like the Digital Security Act, risks undermining constitutional rights such as freedom of thought, dissent, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, while covering many of the most important issues related to the security of cyber infrastructure, the Internet, and all related digital platforms. TIB commented that it was ignored.
Standing against the public expectations, the Cyber Security Act is going to become another tool to take away the freedom of opinion, thought, conscience, speech and media, said the TIB Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman. Calling on all parliamentarians including the relevant standing committee members and ministers, he further said, they should play a strong role to ensure that CSA does not become a replica of DSA. TIB also sent a working paper titled “Digital Security Act-2018 to Draft Cyber Security Act-2023: Comparative Review and Recommendations”. However, we saw that the law was passed in a hurry in the National Parliament, where despite the promise, the suggestions and recommendations of the relevant stakeholders including TIB were not taken into consideration. He said, ‘we saw Taking advantage of an absolute majority, the bill was passed by voice vote just eight days after it was tabled in Parliament on September 5. As a result of this, the expectation of popularization has been trampled on the one hand and on the other hand, basic human rights practices like free thought, expression and freedom of the media have been criminalized again in many cases, which is extremely disappointing’.
In recent times, there have been instances of cyber-attacks and attempted attacks on various government institutions, important information infrastructure, domain accounts, and bank and database theft of sensitive information. Zaman said, “where, the scope and purpose of the cyber security act was supposed to be the scope and purpose of the cyber security law specifically, the security of the cyber infrastructure, internet and all related digital platforms and the necessary and adequate legal framework to ensure the free and safe use of these have been left out of the scope of the law.” The black law DSA, which has been widely criticized nationally and internationally for its use as a tool to suppress dissent and stifle the voice of the media, ignoring security in cyberspace, has been effectively upheld.
