Govt. all out to steamroller OSB through Parliament

By Saman Indrajith

The government yesterday succeeded in commencing the Online Safety Bill second reading debate amidst the Opposition’s attempts to have it postponed.

An emergency vote was taken to decide whether to consider taking up the Bill for debate. The government mustered 83 votes, and only 50 Opposition MPs voted against the debate.

The SJB, TNA, SLPP dissident MPs, JVP-led NPP voted against the debate.

Moving the Bill for the debate, Public Security Minister Tiran Alles said that he had presented the Bill to Parliament last October. “There have been many discussions with both local and foreign stakeholders. There have been petitions before the Supreme Court challenging the Bill. The Supreme Court determination suggested several amendments to the draft Bill. We agreed to include those amendments.

In addition, members of the civil society, the Asian Internet Coalition and the UN country representative, also had discussions with me in this regard. Their opinions, too, have been considered in amending the draft Bill. This Bill is brought before the House to amend laws to prevent offences against women and children using the internet. In 2023 alone there were more than 8,000 complaints of incidents of abusing the internet in this country. There were 669 complaints against sexual harassment and 506 complaints against publishing naked photos on the net. These are only the complaints.

More than 100,000 nude photos were posted on the Internet during that year alone. There have been 687 complaints of defamation, 1,961 complaints of cyber bullying, 34 instances of threats, 88 instances of posts affecting national security, 457 instances of defrauding money. In addition, there are many other offences including 547 instances of stealing data,” Minister Alles said, adding that some MPs, their wives and children had also been abused in social media.

Earlier in the day, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena had to suspend sittings for a special party leaders’ meeting to decide whether the Bill would be taken for debate. Opposition and SJB leader Sajith Premadasa had requested that a special party leaders’ meeting be held to put off taking the Bill for debate although it was on the Order Paper for the day. Representatives of all opposition parties present at the meeting opposed taking the Bill but the government representatives insisted on commencing the debate. Finally, the Speaker decided to put the question for a vote before the House.

The Sectoral Oversight Committee on Media, Youth, Heritage and New Citizen on Monday (22) approved the Online Safety Bill, subject to the amendments suggested by the Supreme Court. Officials representing the Ministry of Public Security, the Attorney General’s Department, the Legal Draftsman’s Department, the Police and the National Secretariat of Non-Governmental Organisations attended the committee meeting. Opposition MPs Gayantha Karunathilake, Eran Wickramaratne and Chandima Weerakkody said that the Committee should put off the Bill without taking it up for debate as some of its contents needed to be further discussed. However, the Committee disregarded their opinion.