We agree with the law minister's sentiments that laws akin to what the Digital Security Act (DSA) is supposed to achieve is indeed very important in the context of the current reality of Bangladesh.
As a nation undergoing transformative digitalization, it benefits us all to have laws in place which keep us safe from the dangers of bad actors online.
However, it is indubitable that, in its current state, the DSA has done nothing more than act as a tool of abuse, with journalists in particular feeling the burn. In 2021, Bogra district correspondent of the daily Banijya Pratidin, Aktaruzzaman, was sent to jail in a case filed under DSA for a Facebook post; while journalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol's arrest under the same law saw him missing for months until he was found and his bail plea was granted after prolonged hold-ups.
Which is why it is all the more hard to take a government official's words at face value when they recognize the infinite scope for abuse that laws such as the DSA hold yet insist that it is not being used to obstruct basic freedoms.
The proof is in the pudding.
However, it is indeed hard to deny that, given Bangladesh's rapid digitalization, the necessity for laws which ensure cyber-security for everyone will become all the more important. One of the most fundamental ways that can be ensured is through the formation of laws that protect our data privacy. Data is, after all, the most valuable commodity in the modern world; and without laws that clearly define what it is and how it should be protected, we leave an abundant scope for abuse at the hands of bad actors.
While Bangladesh has seen the formation of laws such as the Data Protection Act, in its current state it is incredibly opaque in nature and lacks clear definitions for a number of important facets such as what constitutes “personal information.”
Our country is on the verge of fulfilling its economic ambitions and realizing the dream of a Digital Bangladesh will be an inextricable component to that end. However, without recognizing the need for data and cyber-security laws that consider the good of the people, we run the risk of entirely derailing all the progress we have made at best and becoming a surveillance state at worst.
