Deputies of the lower chamber of Parliament started considering the draft law “On cyber security”. According to it, control over the digital space is transferred to the State Security Service (SSS). MP Rasul Kusherbayev made a post about this.
“In addition to regulating relations and other aspects in the field of cybersecurity, the authorities intend to initiate the creation of software and even not one, but several national operating systems, but the ambitiousness of the tasks doesn’t correspond to the level of development of IT technologies in the country,” the ACCA expert notes. “As a regulator, the State Security Service will receive more powers. It will only monitor illegal content on the network, catch terrorists and swindlers.”
At the same time, the authorities updated the list of extremist Internet content. The decision of the Supreme Court was made on December 24, 2021. Now it includes 166 electronic resources in Uzbek language, including social media accounts and Telegram channels. In May 2019, there were 40.
The peculiarity of the new document, implying abuse by the security forces, is cited by the online media Kun.uz, “Any resident of the country can access the Internet and read materials from resources with simple names. On the net, you can find communities such as “Lessons for students”, “World of poems” or “History of Islam”. According to the media, an Uzbekistani can get acquainted with the contents of an extremist channel without even knowing it. So, a person automatically falls under the suspicion of the SSS.
Source: Acca Media
