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She called Amnesty International Bangladesh's new government has called for the restoration of freedom of expression and the repeal of the Cybersecurity Act of 2023, which it described as a “continuation of successive repressive legislation” in the country.
The organization said that the aforementioned law and similar repressive legislation “have repeatedly facilitated the state's crackdown on civic space and human rights, including during the recent student-led protests.”
The report, “Recasting Repression: The Cybersecurity Law and Bangladesh’s Ongoing Legal War on Dissent,” reveals that the law encapsulates almost all the repressive provisions of the repealed Digital Security Act of 2018 and Section 57 of the Information and Communications Technology Act of 2006 that preceded it.
Amnesty added that this law was designed to target journalists, human rights defenders and opponents, despite the government's previous repeated assurances to the contrary.
The organization recalled that on June 26, in preparation for the protests that toppled the Prime Minister, Hasina Wajid A few days ago, Bangladesh police arrested a man under the Cyber Security Act for criticizing the quota system in a Facebook post.
In another case, seven people were charged under the Cyber Security Act on July 24 during the protests for posting “satirical pictures” of government officials – including former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina – on Facebook.
Amnesty stressed that the interim government must reverse “this long-standing legacy of suppressing dissent by repealing laws such as the Content Censorship Act that threaten and undermine the rights to freedom of expression, liberty and privacy” in Bangladesh.
“The latest deadly crackdown on student protests in Bangladesh comes against a backdrop of growing intolerance and repression of dissent in the country,” said Takbir Huda, Amnesty International’s South Asia Regional Researcher.
He points out that “the Cybersecurity Act is essentially a repetition of the Digital Security Act” that was repealed and replaced by another law that was “merely an attempt to quell growing international pressure through representational reforms that repackage authoritarian provisions and practices into an ostensibly new law.”
The report provides a comprehensive analysis of Bangladesh’s Cybersecurity Act, as well as the cases brought under it to date, and is based on interviews with former detainees under it, their relatives, lawyers, journalists, and human rights defenders in Bangladesh.
