Cyber Security Ordinance, 2025 to come into effect this week

The ‘Cyber Security Ordinance, 2025’ will come into effect this week as the council of advisers approved the ordinance on Tuesday.

“The gazette notification of the ‘Cyber Security Ordinance 2025’ will be issued within this week after vetting of the law ministry,” Law Adviser Dr Asif Nazrul said at a press briefing at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka after a meeting of the council of advisers, according to BSS.

Asif Nazrul said that once the gazette notification is issued, the cybersecurity ordinance will come into immediate effect.

The ordinance will not incorporate nine controversial sections of the existing law, the Cyber Security Act, 2023. These sections were used in 95 per cent of cases as tools to clamp down on free speech and dissident voices during the previous government.

“After the issuance of the gazette notification on the ordinance, those cases will be cancelled automatically,” the adviser said.

Sections related to the liberation war, the spirit of the liberation war, Bangabandhu, the national anthem, and the national flag have been repealed as a huge number of cases were filed under the nine sections to harass people, Dr Asif Nazrul said.

“All the cases filed under the nine sections will be cancelled automatically,” he repeated. 

The Cyber Security Act, 2023, was the amended version of the Digital Security Act, 2018.

In the ordinance, access to the internet has been recognised as a civic right for the first time, Asif Nazrul said, adding that online gambling has been banned and repression and sexual harassment of children and women in cyberspace have been recognised as punishable offences.

Releasing content on repression and sexual harassment of women and children and spreading religious hatred, which exaggerates violence, have been identified as punishable offences under the ordinance, the law adviser said.

He said committing crimes using artificial intelligence has been recognised as offenses for the first time in South Asia.

The law adviser said the council of advisers also approved the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025, and an ordinance related to the demarcation of electoral areas.

Youth and Sports Adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain and the Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam were present at the press briefing.