Digital Security Act: Not meant to gag freedom of expression

Digital security act has been drafted not to gag freedom of expression rather to stop spreading of falsehood and militant activities through social media to protect the minority community, Prime Minister's ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy said yesterday.

“Expression of freedom is a right of a citizen. Digital security act has been made not to suppress freedom of expression rather to protect minorities and stop spreading of lies or hate speeches in social media," said Joy, son of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of two-day "Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) Conference" at a city hotel.

“Any individual, specially the minority community can be affected by misleading news or rumors. We cannot allow that … it is not expression of freedom, it is carried out to spread hatred and those who are doing it should be brought under the law," he said.

He said the ICT sector has created an enormous scope for jobs and youths can earn a handsome amount of dollars through outsourcing.

Joy said the digital security act should be passed in the Jatiya Sangsad immediately.

While highlighting the huge potentials of ICT development, Joy urged the youth men and women to be associated with ICT sector without waiting for government jobs.

“Youths need not to wait for government jobs … ICT has created a huge opportunity for them," he added. 

Describing Bangladesh as a leading ICT hub in the world, the PM's son urged all not to misuse “Facebook”.

“Misleading information often spreads in Facebook, but we cannot shut down Facebook for it," he said, urging the regulatory bodies concerned to develop necessary tools so that harmful contents are not seen from Bangladesh.

Around 4,000 youths get jobs through Bangladesh Public Service Commission every year, but there are huge job seekers who can take training in ICT and manage jobs easily.

"I hope that this sector would create jobs for 100,000 people by 2021,” he added.

He said Bangladesh is now earning around 20 crore dollars from BPO business and the government has been working to increase the earning to 100 crore dollars by 2021.

He described the youth population as Bangladesh's assets and giving training to these youths is the government's priority task.

Posts, Telecommunications and ICT Minister Mustafa Jabbar presided over the opening session of the two-day conference organised jointly by the ICT ministry and Bangladesh Association of Call Center and Outsourcing.

Jabbar said the number of internet users was only 24 lakh in 2008 and this number has reached 8 crore.

State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak said there are over 6,00,000 freelancers in outsourcing jobs.