Afghanistan Enacts Law Targeting Online Crime and Militancy

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Afghanistan Enacts Law Targeting Online Crime and Militancy

By CircleID Reporter
July 12, 2017, 5:05 pm PDT Views: 8,051 Add Comment

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani has signed into law a cybercrime bill this week targeting online crime and militancy by groups such as the Taliban and Islamic State despite concerns it could limit free speech. AFP report via Arab News: “The Cyber Crime Law criminalizes a range of online activities including hacking, spreading ethnic hatred, distribution of online defamatory speech, exposing government secrets, and cyber-terrorism within the provisions of the newly reviewed penal code. The law has 28 articles and it is going to control all cybercrimes. All criminals will be tracked and referred to courts ... [However] the law could have a detrimental effect on access to information in Afghanistan, which was ranked 120th out of 180 countries in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders.”

By CircleID Reporter — CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.
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