Bill won't give SSA control of Internet – Jeffery

The Cybercrime and Cybersecurity Bill has proposed criminalising the growing trend of cyberbullying‚ distribution of intimate material referred to as ‘revenge pornography’ as well as malicious communication on social media platforms – but it won't give the State Security Agency (SSA) power to control the Internet (see report below), notes Legalbrief. This assurance was given yesterday by John Jeffery‚ Deputy Minister of Justice and Correctional Services‚ who said that with regards to malicious communications‚ the Bill aims to criminalise a data message which incites the causing of any damage to any property‚ or violence against a person or a group of persons‚ which is harmful‚ which is intimate in nature‚ and which is distributed without the consent of the person involved. A TimesLIVE report quotes him as saying that in terms of a protection order‚ a court may prohibit any person from distributing a data message or may order an electronic communications service provider or person in control of a computer system to remove or disable access to the data message in question. ‘This includes cyberbullying and the distribution of intimate pictures. The person can approach the court to force a person or service provider to remove the offensive material‚’ he said.