The Crime Desk: The interim government has taken a policy decision to repeal the controversial Cyber Security Act. This decision was taken at the advisory council meeting at the chief adviser’s office on Thursday (November 7). It was chaired by Dr. Muhammad Yunus. Adviser on environment, forest, and climate change, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, informed us of this information.
It is alleged that this law is being used as a tool to harass people of different classes and professions, including journalists. For this reason, the advisors of the interim government have been talking about repealing or amending the law for some time.
Recently, the advisor of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Nahid Islam said this law is being canceled this week. Earlier, legal adviser Asif Nazrul said that the Cyber Security Act should be repealed. The government will go in that direction. It will be cancelled. When the new law comes in later, its basic approach will be to provide cyber security, especially to protect citizens.
If the Cyber Security Act is scrapped, cases filed against the Liberation War,’misleading and defamatory propaganda’ about Bangabandhu, and hurting religious sentiments will be automatically dismissed.
Earlier, on September 30, the Law Ministry announced in a circular that the government has decided to withdraw the cases related to’speech ‘offense’ (free expression) filed under the Cyber ct. At the same time, if anyone is arrested in these cases, he will also be released immediately through the legal process, the Ministry of Law has also said.
Meanwhile, under the Information and Communication Technology Act 2006, the Digital Security Act 2018, and the Cyber Security Act 2023, a total of 5,818 cases are ongoing in the 8 cyber tribunals of the country till August this year.
Besides, currently 1,340 cases related to’speech ‘offense’ are ongoing. Among them, 279 cases under the Information and Communication Technology Act, 786 under the Digital Security Act, and 275 under the Cyber Security Act are ongoing. Out of these cases, 461 cases are under investigation by the investigative agency, and 879 cases are under trial in the eight cyber tribunals of the country.
In 2018, the controversial Digital Security Act was enacted during the Awami League regime. Later, after severe criticism, the Digital Security Act was repealed in 2023 and replaced by the Cyber Security Act. However, there is a lot of controversy and criticism about it. Objections to this law were raised from various levels, including journalists. Today the interim government took a policy decision to repeal the Act.
