CSA will be oppressive like DSA if passed: TIB

Staff Reporter :
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Wednesday said that nothing new has been incorporated in the draft of Cyber Security Act (CSA) except mere changing of the name and some sections of Digital Security Act (DSA), which is just copy and paste.

According to TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman, if the CSA as it is now is implemented, it will be another oppressive law similar to the DSA.

While addressing a press conference in the city’s Midas Centre, he said, “The draft of CSA shows that everything is the same, except for a few changes. The CSA is nothing but copy and paste of DSA.”

In response to the mounting national demands and international critique, on 7 August 2023, the Cabinet of Bangladesh decided to replace the contentious Digital Security Act 2018 (DSA) with the draft Cyber Security Act 2023 (draft CSA).

The decision raised the expectation that the era of the DSA would conclude.

Unlike the DSA, the proposed draft CSA would focus on the core and specific mandate of ensuring cyber security as per international practice
instead of being another tool to restrict free speech and other rights.

“No significant changes in sections 10-16, as the provisions of sections 10 to 16 of the draft CSA have remained unchanged compared to the DSA, except for the modification of ‘Digital Security Council’ to ‘Cyber Security Council’ in section 12.

Additionally, unlike the DSA, the draft CSA includes the names of officials such as the Director General of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), Director General of the Directorate General of National Security Intelligence (NSI), Director General of the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC), and Director General of the National Cyber Security Agency as members of the National Cyber Security Council formed under section 12 of the draft CSA,” Dr Iftekharuzzaman said.

The TIB chief said, “When the DSA came into effect, we called for repealing it.

This time when the draft of CSA was prepared, the same thing had happened. Some amendments have been made which are obscured.

Police have been given excessive power. There are doubts about efficiency of police.

In many cases, just copying and pasting have been done. If the law is passed in parliament in the same way, we will again call for repealing it.

The issues which are beyond cyber crimes must be deleted from it.”

“The draft was approved in just 14 days without taking opinions from stakeholders.

While the draft reduces the severity of punishment in certain cases, fundamental concerns and penalties remain.

Additionally, the basic right of individuals to have freedom of speech is still being limited,” he said.

TIB’s Outreach and Communication director Sheikh Manzur-e-Alam highlighted the differences between the DSA and draft of the CSA.

The draft CSA is essentially a renamed version of the DSA, with only a few alterations in the form of apparently reduced severity of punishments.

For example, the draft CSA does not provide for punishments for committing an offence a second time in some instances.

In certain sections, the draft CSA provides shorter imprisonment sentences compared to the DSA, though it proposes higher fines than the DSA in several sections.

The time allowed to complete the investigation under the draft CSA as per section 39 (DSA 40) has been extended to 90 days instead of 60.

The draft CSA has more non-cognisable and bailable sections than the DSA.

In substance, the draft CSA contains all the provisions from the DSA that compromise freedom of speech, dissent, thought and conscience, freedom of the press, and independent journalism.