Online Safety Bill Amended

The Online Safety (Amendment) Bill was presented to parliament on Thursday by the Leader of the House, Susil Premajayantha.

Amendments to the bill, which was passed in parliament in January, are being introduced after concerns were raised by stakeholders over certain sections of the original law.

The draft bill extends the application of the law to cover statements communicated, intending to harass a target person by publishing any private communication of such a person and online publishing of photographs, audio, or video of an abusive or pornographic nature without the expressed consent of a person.

The bill empowers the Commission to make a code of practice by way of rules to address harmful online content and behavior including hate speech, incitement to violence, misinformation, disinformation, cyberbullying and harassment, and online sexual exploitation and abuse.

Once the amendment bill is passed, internet service providers and internet intermediaries will have three months within which to formulate a code of practice on a voluntary basis or communicate their desire to the Commission to jointly formulate a code of practice, together with the Commission.

If they fail to do so within the stipulated period, the  Commission will take steps to formulate such a code of practice, publish a draft in electronic form, and seek comments, observations, and recommendations from the internet service providers and internet intermediaries within a period of three months and take steps to reach concurrence and consensus with them.

The Commission will also take steps to hold public consultations on the draft code of practice, for a period of three months prior to its issuance and place it before Parliament for approval.