Social Media Bill presented in NA

Kathmandu, Feb 9: The Social Media Bill, 2081 BS has been presented in the National Assembly (NA). Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Prithvi Subba Gurung tabled the Bill in the session.

Prior to this, NA Chairperson Narayan Prasad Dahal apprised the House that no notice of protest has been received regarding the Bill.

The government had on January 28 registered the document in the NA, citing it aimed to further systematise the use of social sites, making them decent and secure.

Tabling the Bill, the Minister said the Bill is meant to make the operators and users of social site platforms responsible and accountable and promote social goodwill, cultural tolerance and good governance through the appropriate and systematic use of social sites.

The Bill has proposed the provisions for a license (with a two-year validity) for any companies, firms or institutions to operate digital platforms and renewal of the permission, granting the rights to authorities concerned to ban the operation of such platforms and the remove the contents in violations of the terms and conditions. It has proposed conditions for the users of social sites as well.

The Bill prohibits cyber bullying, stalking and ID hacking, extortion or sextortion, dissemination of vulgar, fake or misleading content, uploading or dissemination of deepfake videos and the use of accounts with anonymous or pseudonymous identities.

The Bill wanted the operation of social sites should not to jeopardize the country’s peace and security, order, sovereignty, territorial integrity, national security, national unity, and independence and should not feature contents that are against the interests of the nation. In case of violations of these terms and conditions, the operation license may be scrapped.

It has disapproved the social media content capable of hurting the dignity of others, trolling, hate speech and distortion of information.

Similarly, posting, like, reposting, live streaming, subscribing, commenting, tagging, hashtagging or mentioning with wrong intention is liable to a fine of up to Rs 500 thousand to users of social sites.

The government claims that in case of the endorsement of the Bill and its implementation as the Act will cause a rise in the information security and privacy of personal data, cyber security, and systematization of IT-related enterprises and a rise in foreign investment in this sector.

RSS