A review of the Cybercrime Act is underway to address the use of the various social media platforms to “attack” private citizens, according to Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall.
“Something has to be done about the use of the social media as a weapon against the citizens of this country…A government cannot stand idly by in the face of such onslaught on its citizens, that government will be failing in its responsibilities” he said during his weekly programme ‘Issues in the News.’
The Attorney General said information posted on social media is “completely unregulated” and causes damage to people’s reputation, people’s character, that of their family.
As such, he said “a regulatory framework must be installed and installed very quickly to arrest this situation and the penalties for violation of this regulatory framework must be condign. What we have here is an exceptional situation and an exceptional situation requires an exceptional response.”
Guyana’s Cybercrime Act was passed in 2018 and addresses various aspects of harassment using electronic media.
Section 19 of the Act states that, among other things, a person commits and offence if…he/she uses a computer system to publish or transmit electronic data that intimidates a person, threatens the other person to use violence to him or a family member or injure their property, publish or send electronic data that is obscene…threaten to or publish information that causes damage to the reputation of another person or subjects another person to public ridicule, contempt, hatred or embarrassment. Further, the fines under this section amount to $5M and three years imprisonment for conviction and $10M and imprisonment for ten years for conviction on indictment.
The Attorney General refuted claims that the Government is trying to control freedom of expression noting that freedom of expression and freedom of the press do not give anyone the right to attack another person’s character or family.
To review the current legislation, Guyanese experts who recently worked with the United Nations to craft a convention to govern cyber space will be assisting with the process.
“Our experts, Deputy Chief Parliamentary Council Ms. Joan Bond and Ms. Trishala Persaud, participated from the inception on the work on that convention and they are in a position to inform us what the convention will say and how we should fashion our amendments to the Cyber Crime Act,” the AG said.
Nandlall said the review will be completed and amendments will be tabled in the National Assembly when recess ends in October.
Meanwhile, the Law Reform Commission which was recently sworn in, was tasked with reviewing the criminal procedure statutory provisions and make amendments to allow for documents to be served “smoothly” on person who are overseas but using cyberspace to commit offences in Guyana, Nandlall disclosed.
He said a meeting was conducted with the Commission on Tuesday where they were also tasked with reviewing the current criminal law procedures to ensure other procedures are addressed. The amendments will eliminate technical legal objections including the court’s jurisdiction to hear matters relating to cybercrime and who can serve documents among others.
