Cabinet clears draft of Cyber Security Act

The Cabinet has cleared the draft of the Cyber Security Act after amending some sections of the controversial Digital Security Act.

The approval was given in the Cabinet meeting held at the Secretariat on Monday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

The Cyber Security Act will not provide imprisonment of journalists in defamation cases. However, there is a maximum penalty of Tk 25 lakh. Imprisonment of 3 or 6 months is aplicable in default.

On August 7, the cabinet gave in-principle approval to the draft amendments to the Digital Security Act-2018. The law is then sent to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs for 'vetting' or verification and opinion. It received final approval after verification and feedback there.

The Information and Communication Technology Act was enacted in 2006 to deal with crimes related to information technology, which came to be known as the ICT Act. The government canceled the ICT Act in 2018 in the face of severe criticism. At that time the 'Digital Security Act' was passed.