Dear Secretary Yusuf,
Amnesty International appreciates the Bangladeshi government’s effort to seek feedback on the draft “Cyber
Security Act, 2023”, which, if enacted, would repeal the controversial Digital Security Act 2018 (DSA). When the
new law was announced, the organization welcomed the Bangladeshi government’s decision to repeal the DSA but
cautioned that the new law must not replicate the same repressive features of the DSA.
Our preliminary reading of the draft law leads us to conclude that the draft CSA retains the repressive provisions of
the DSA which have persistently been used to threaten and restrict the right to freedom of expression in
Bangladesh.