#WeRejectCyberBill trends in Pakistan in response to ‘draconian’ cyber crime law

A controversial cyber crime bill in Pakistan is under fire for alleged violations of free speech. The bill, named “The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2015”, was passed by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication.

The new bill is a part of a national action plan devised in response to the 2014 Peshawar school attack, which left more than one hundred students dead. The plan proposed a law to check the online activities of “terrorist organisations”.

But digital activists have been quick to denounce the bill as “censorship“. The bill enables authorities to block access to any content that they consider to go against “public order, decency or morality”, and punishes “obscene, vulgar [and] contemptuous” communications with prison sentences. 

Some say political criticism or expression could also be considered a crime. Critics took to Twitter to slam the bill: