Digital laws are a threat to people’s expression and personal privacy

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Digital space-related laws recently passed by Parliament pose a risk to people’s expression and personal privacy. Every law needs to be re-examined to protect rights. Discussants have given this opinion after participating in Digital Rights Asia-Pacific Bangladesh National Conference-2026. They said the laws were passed quickly without stakeholder input. Apart from this, there is scope for extensive digital surveillance, some clauses have been upheld.

The conference was held on Tuesday at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Center under the theme of ‘meaningful, inclusive legislation’ organized by Digital Right and Engagemedia, an organization working on human rights on the Internet. Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) and development organization D-NET participated as session partners in the conference.

Digitally Right communication officer Sazia Afrin sent these information in the press release. The press release also featured the guests’ speeches.

The first plenary session of the event was organized by TIB. Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of TIB, expressed concern about various sections of the Cyber ​​Protection Act, the amended Telecommunication Act, the Personal Data Protection Act and the National Data Management Act, which were recently passed by the Parliament. He said, ‘There are many inconsistencies in the new laws. These laws are in conflict with the spirit of July or the electoral promises of the parties represented in Parliament.’

Iftekharuzzaman also said, “The old laws have actually been brought back with a new name, which has not been very helpful in empowering people.” Although many of the leaders of the Parliament have been victims of abuse of such laws in the past, they have enacted similar laws.

Other speakers at the session expressed concern about the framework the laws passed could create for mass surveillance. At that time, Daily Star’s joint editor Asha Mehreen Amin said, “Just like the cases that used to be filed due to Facebook posts, it is seen that cases are being filed during this government as well.” Journalists were at risk of surveillance before, they are still at risk.

Suzan Vaiz, Head of Representative of UNESCO in Bangladesh said, ‘Every law needs to be verified from the perspective of society. The new government should take the opportunity to review the laws and improve the human rights protection areas.

Muhammad Anwar Uddin, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology said, “These laws are useful and important. If there are any problems, they can be rectified later and the government is already working to improve them.”

The second session of the program was attended by Rujan Sarwar, public policy manager of technology company Mater, Pratyush Rao, head of public and regulatory affairs of telecom company Telenor Asia, Sadia Haque, founder of desi startup Sharetrip and commissioner of regulatory body BTRC, Mahmood Hossain.

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In this session, Mater Rujan Sarwar said, ‘We have been fighting for four years with the Data Management Act. Due to several clauses, including provisions for local storage of data, I have wondered whether Meta can have a presence in Bangladesh at all. However, the data protection law passed by Parliament is good for platforms like Meta and Google.

Recently, when asked about the attack on several media outlets of the country with incitement on Facebook, this Met official said, “As an institution, we still need to improve in many places. But when the incitement moves from one platform to another, there is nothing to do. Meta’s communication with the local community will be increased in the future.

Pratyush Rao of Telenor Asia said, “We have been keeping an eye on the Telecom Amendment Act for a long time. Section 97A of the Act was important for us. Now NTMC (National Telecommunication Monitoring Center) has been replaced by a new body. We want to see how this mandate will work, who will direct and who will have authority.

BTRC Commissioner Mahmud Hossain said, ‘Many times laws are changed due to different interest groups; While some powerful groups can reach policymakers, others cannot. This creates a lack of trust. But BTRC tries to formulate policies by talking to everyone.

Sharetrip’s Sadia Haque said that local entrepreneurs do not get a chance to play a role in policy discussions. On the one hand, there is a lack of sufficient knowledge about the impact of the law, on the other hand, there is no opportunity to meet with the leading people of the government. The voice of small technology companies is lost in this.

In the third panel discussion organized by DNET, the institute’s executive chair Ananya Raihan and other experts discussed the management of artificial intelligence. At this time, he urged for meaningful discussion in formulating AI (Artificial Intelligence) policies. In the last session of the program, Digitally Right’s new Tech Policy Fellows presented their research topics and opinions.

At the closing ceremony of the event, Miraj Ahmed Chowdhury, managing director of Digitally Right, said that digital governance is not a matter of government or private companies alone. It should reflect the views of all stakeholders including civil society, media and marginalized groups. He said, this conference is an area to continue that discussion and they will continue it in the future.