The amendments proposed to the Cyber Protection Act (2026) would include defamation as an offence and set out prison terms and fines for insult and bullying. The scope of what may be said or published online, and what will be punished, is therefore set to widen further.
If the proposed amendments take effect, they raise the prospect of a return to the restrictions of the controversial and severe Digital Security Act (DSA) of the fallen Awami League government’s time when it comes to controlling expression online. That law faced widespread criticism over provisions held to be hostile to free thought and freedom of expression.
The draft amendment was recently published on the website of the Information and Communication Technology Division.
The current law was framed largely on the basis of the Cyber Protection Ordinance 2025 issued by the interim government. The ordinance became law on April 10 this year, and an amendment to it was passed in parliament on June 30.
These fresh amendments have been proposed soon after the law came into force. Under the proposal, defamation would carry a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of 20 lakh taka. Where the victim is a woman or a child, the punishment would be doubled.
The same punishment is provided for insult and bullying.
The same punishment has also been proposed for sexual harassment, attempting to extract money or favours through sexual harassment, child sexual abuse, revenge pornography, blackmail and the publication of content deemed obscene.
The proposed defamation provision existed in the DSA as well, but the maximum punishment has been made harsher in the new law. Under the DSA, defamation carried a maximum of three years in prison and a fine of five lakh taka.
In the proposed amendment, digital defamation means information, data, statements, audio, video, audiovisual images, still images or graphics spread or published with the intent of damaging a person’s reputation, dignity or character.
Such material may be false, distorted, misleading, insulting or harmful. It may be recorded or edited by digital or electronic means. Content created, edited or altered using artificial intelligence would also fall within its scope.
Insult means words, conduct, publication, gestures or acts through which a person’s dignity, honour, reputation or social standing is diminished, so that the person is presented to others as humiliated, trivial, contemptible or dishonourable, or their social standing and reputation are damaged.
Bullying means deliberate, planned and repeated conduct or acts by a person or group in which their own power, influence or dominance is used to target another person or group. Such conduct may be physical, verbal, social, digital or by any other means, and may cause physical or mental harm, distress, intimidation, social exclusion, isolation or loneliness.
The proposed amendment also adds the spreading of rumour or fake news as an offence, carrying a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of 40 lakh taka. The DSA did not separately identify the spreading of fake news as an offence.
The amendment says rumour means any baseless or unverified information, news or claim that creates, or risks creating, confusion, panic, agitation or social unrest among people.
Fake news likewise means false, distorted or misleading information deliberately created, published or spread with the intent of confusing, deceiving or harming a person, the public, an institution or the state.
The proposed amendment allows a number of offences under the law to be tried in mobile courts.
Mobile courts would be able to punish offences such as sexual harassment, blackmail, publishing obscene or defamatory content, insult and bullying. Where the victim is a woman or a child, however, the offence would have to be tried in the cyber tribunal.
Alongside the spreading of rumour and fake news, offences such as hacking, cyber terrorism, digital theft and unlawful access to critical information infrastructure would also be tried in the cyber tribunal.
Mobile courts, on the other hand, would have the power to try offences such as cyber fraud, spreading malware, data theft and causing physical damage to digital infrastructure.
Another proposed amendment further widens the power to request that digital content be blocked.
Under the current law, only law-enforcement agencies may request the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), through their director general, to block content.
At present, content may be blocked if it damages the country’s integrity, security, defence or public order. Content that incites violence by spreading religious, communal or ethnic hatred, and content giving instructions for disorder or criminal activity, may likewise be blocked.
The proposed amendment gives the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and any other government-approved agency or force, the same power to request blocking alongside law-enforcement agencies.
The grounds and scope for blocking content are also being widened. Under the proposal, content could be blocked not only after an offence or harmful activity has occurred, but also where there is sufficient reason to suspect that such an incident may occur.
Alongside the existing grounds, content defamatory of a person or institution, and content contemptuous of the state, could also be blocked.
The current cyber security law requires that the blocking of content be made public. The proposed amendment would remove that requirement.
Another proposed amendment says that if a company commits an offence under this law, its registration or licence may be cancelled, and its operations suspended if necessary. There is no such provision in the current law.
The research organisation Tech Global Institute said the amendments would increase excessive use of state power over free expression online.
In a statement, the organisation said the amendments continue a worrying trend seen under successive governments beginning with the Digital Security Act of 2018.
The statement said the proposed amendment introduces vague concepts such as defamation, disparagement and rumour, which can be interpreted differently from person to person. This creates a risk that legitimate expression — criticism of government officials and state institutions, satire, public-interest journalism and political speech — may be treated as criminal.
The organisation added that large fines and prison terms have been provided for these offences, while much of the interpretation and application of the law will rest with state authorities, creating considerable scope for the law to be applied abusively.
Home minister Salahuddin Ahmed said on Friday that the proposed Cyber Security (Amendment) Act 2026 would restore a decent environment in the digital space. It would help protect women and young people from cyber bullying and prevent misuse of the law, while also ensuring professional protection for journalists.
Speaking at a courtesy meeting with a delegation from the International Republican Institute (IRI) at his office in the Bangladesh Secretariat, he said constructive criticism and the use of character assassination or objectionable language against someone for political purposes are not the same thing.