<\/p>\n
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka\u2019s lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill to regulate online content, the speaker of the parliament announced, a law which opposition politicians and activists allege will muzzle free speech.<\/p>\n
The Online Safety Bill proposes jail terms for content that a five-member commission considers illegal and making social media platforms such as Alphabet\u2019s Google, Meta\u2019s Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, liable for such content on their platforms.<\/p>\n
President Ranil Wickrem\u00adesinghe\u2019s government says the bill is aimed at battling cybercrime including child abuse, data theft and online fraud.<\/p>\n
\u201cSri Lanka had 8,000 cybercrime complaints last year. We all agree that we need laws to address these issues. This is why we are bringing this law,\u201d Public Security Minister Tiran Alles said while tabling the bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not to suppress the media or the opposition\u2026Any complaint will be taken up by the commission, who will be appointed by the president and they will decide how to act.\u201d The bill was passed with a majority of 46 votes in the 225-member house.<\/p>\n
AIC\u2019s warning<\/strong><\/p>\n The Asian Internet Coalition (AIC), which has Apple, Amazon, Google and Yahoo as members, warned Sri Lanka that the bill could impact investment in the country\u2019s IT industry and called for extensive amendments to it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe unequivocally stand by our position that the Online Safety Bill, in its current form, is unworkable and would undermine potential growth and foreign direct investment into Sri Lanka\u2019s digital economy,\u201d the AIC said.<\/p>\n Harsha de Silva, a lawmaker of main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya, calling it a threat to democracy said this would also have a severe impact on the e-commerce sector in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" COLOMBO: Sri Lanka\u2019s lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill to regulate online content, the speaker of the parliament announced, a law which opposition politicians and activists allege will muzzle free speech. The Online Safety Bill proposes jail terms for content that a five-member commission considers illegal and making social media platforms such as Alphabet\u2019s Google, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/01\/2508331817ee86e.png?r=083719","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t