The United States notes the passage of the new Cyber Security Act (CSA) by the Bangladeshi Parliament. We regret that the Government of Bangladesh did not give stakeholders adequate opportunity to review and provide input to the new law to ensure it meets international standards. Unfortunately, the CSA retains many aspects of its predecessor, the Digital Security Act. The new legislation continues to criminalize freedom of expression, retains non-bailable offenses, and too easily could be misused to arrest, detain, and silence critics.
