Bangladesh’s Digital Security Act an attack on freedom of expression: Amnesty

The Digital Security Act is an attack on freedom of expression that is even more repressive than the legislation it has replaced, Amnesty International has said.

In a new briefing titled ‘Muzzling Dissent Online’ on Monday, the London-based group warned that vague and overly broad provisions of the new law could be used to intimidate and imprison journalists and social media users, silence dissent and carry out invasive forms of surveillance.

“Instead of breaking with the past, where the Information Technology Act was used to arrest at least 1,200 people in Bangladesh, this draconian new law threatens to be even more repressive,” it quoted its Deputy South Asia Director Dinushika Dissanayake as saying in a statement.

“The Digital Security Act criminalises many forms of freedom of expression and imposes heavy fines and prison sentences for legitimate forms of dissent. It is incompatible with international law and standards and should be amended immediately,” she added.

Over the past six years the Bangladesh government, under the ICT Act, the forerunner to the Digital Security Act, arrested more than a thousand people, according to the Amnesty International.

Most of them were arrested under much-criticised Section 57 of the Act, it said.

Several provisions in the Digital Security Act pose a similarly “grave threat” to human rights, according to the group.

The new law is “plagued by a lack of clear definitions, explanations and exceptions, including repressive non-bailable penalties for at least 14 offences”.

Section 21 authorises, for example, life imprisonment, along with a hefty fine, for engaging in “propaganda” or a “campaign” against the “spirit of the liberation War”, "father of the nation", the "national anthem" or "national flag”, it said in the statement.

‘IMMENSE POWER’ OF THE AGENCY

The new Act provides “absolute power” to the government’s Digital Security Agency to initiate investigations into anyone whose activities are deemed harmful or a threat, the Amnesty International says.

The agency can also order the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to remove and block any information or data on the internet.

The Act also gives the police absolute power to arrest anyone, without a warrant, simply on suspicion that a crime may be committed using digital media.

“In the absence of a judicial review process to examine and reverse actions of the State in Bangladesh, the discretion of the Digital Security Agency appears immense and arbitrary,” Dissanayake said.

“The government must have proper safeguards for the public to seek redress if they feel their rights are violated and their opinions censored by the state unfairly,” she added.