Many parties including the opposition had alleged that the recently adopted Online Safety Act had been passed despite the amendments given by the Supreme Court to the Act. Sri Lanka Latest News
But the Speaker issued a statement yesterday, saying that the Online Safety Act was passed after ensuring that it included the amendments proposed by the Supreme Court.
Without stopping, the speaker said, if anyone accuses that the Supreme Court recommendations have been ignored, then clearly show which recommendations have been ignored.
The Center for Alternative Policy is an organization that has been vocal about the Online Safety Act from the beginning.
They have issued a special announcement outlining several cases where Supreme Court recommendations have been ignored while passing the Online Safety Act.
We present herewith a rough translation of only a few essential parts of the notice.
The Supreme Court had ordered that 31 amendments were required to pass the bill with a simple majority.
But it appears that the government has ignored some of the recommendations given by the Supreme Court, says the Center for Alternative Policy.
For example, there is a Supreme Court recommendation that the government should ensure that the confidentiality of information related to the investigation is protected by all parties involved in the investigation, but the government has not guaranteed such protection in the adopted act, according to the Center for Alternative Policy.
Also, the Supreme Court, which has concluded that the use of terms such as “malicious” and “unruly” wantonly creates a misunderstanding, has ordered that those words be removed. However, such terminology has not been removed from the Act and continues to be used.
Besides, the Supreme Court has recommended that services such as email, SMS and MMS should be removed from the Online Safety Act, but the Supreme Court’s recommendation has been ignored in the adopted Act, says the Center for Alternative Policy.
Taking all these facts into consideration, the Alternative Policy Center requests immediate steps to repeal the Online Safety Act.
