Draft Cyber Safety Ordinance still contains some repressive provisions: TIB

There is room for misuse of the recently formulated draft Cyber Safety Ordinance as it still contains some repressive measures similar to those in the controversial Cybersecurity Act, according to the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).

In a press conference on Tuesday (31 December), TIB stated that the hasty finalisation of the ordinance's draft, without consulting experts and stakeholders, has led to the inclusion of such repressive provisions.

Therefore, it is crucial to quickly revise the draft based on discussions with experts and stakeholders, incorporating their feedback, it said.

On 24 December, the draft of the Cyber Safety Ordinance, 2024 was approved in a meeting of the interim government's advisory council. The government claims that this ordinance will protect both cyberspace and the freedom of the media.

However, TIB believes that the ordinance's objectives could be undermined due to the lack of consultations with all stakeholders before approving the draft, the organisation's executive director, Dr Iftekharuzzaman said at the press briefing.

At the press briefing, "Cyber Safety Ordinance, 2024: TIB's Review" was presented virtually by Dr Muhammad Ershadul Karim, associate professor in the Department of Law and Emerging Technologies at the University of Malaya, Malaysia.

He stated that the ordinance grants excessive powers to the Director-General of the National Cybersecurity Agency.

He said that under Section 8 of the ordinance, the Director-General may request the relevant authority to remove or block any information posing "a cybersecurity risk".

Dr Muhammad Ershadul Karim explained that if such powers are granted without judicial oversight, there is a risk that these provisions could be misused. This provision could therefore pose an obstacle to the successful implementation of the ordinance's objectives.


He also noted that cybercrime, cybersecurity, and speech offenses have been conflated in the ordinance, which is problematic as such issues cannot be addressed under a single law.