The government has used provisions of the ICT Act as grounds to request information from Facebook on 17 users in Bangladesh this year.
While this number is far lower than the 4,559 requests the Indian government made during the same time period, it is nonetheless part of the same worrying worldwide trend of intrusive state surveillance of citizens.
The public needs assurance that basic rights to privacy and freedom of expression will not be interfered with by overly broad laws giving state officials permission to seek and store personal data.
We have previously condemned the draconian provisions of the ICT Act, enacted first by BNP in 2006 and amended by AL in 2013, for the unreasonable powers they bestow over citizens.
These do not provide the public with an independent mechanism to arbitrate against abuses of this law, which have and continue to take place.
Other than genuinely pertinent requests relating to important criminal investigations, and in line with legal sufficiency, the law should not permit governments to investigate citizens’ social media use in a democracy.
There must be an open and transparent system in place to ensure the government does not abuse its powers to seek personal data from private companies.
Freedom of thought and expression are fundamental rights guaranteed by our constitution. Protection of privacy and safeguards against abuse of the law by officials must be paramount.
It is overdue for the government to amend the draconian provisions of the ICT Act to ensure it is not further misused. The law needs to be just and proportionate.