Online safety & content laws in Bangladesh (2026)

Bangladesh's interim Advisory Council approved the Cyber Safety Ordinance 2025, repealing nine contested sections of the Cyber Security Act 2023, including provisions criminalising criticism of the Liberation War narrative, defamation of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and online 'propaganda'. The change automatically voided approximately 95% of pending cases filed under the previous law.

The Advisory Council under Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus formally resolved to cancel the Cyber Security Act 2023, enacted by the ousted Awami League government. The decision came after sustained pressure from journalists, civil society, and international human rights organisations who argued the law preserved the repressive architecture of its predecessor.

The National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre ordered operators to kill all 4G/5G services on 18 July 2024 amid mass student protests; a second shutdown was imposed on 4 August. Over 22 days, Bangladesh suffered its most severe internet blackout on record, including targeted blocks of Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, and YouTube, coinciding with the deaths of hundreds of protesters. Connectivity was restored after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled on 5 August 2024.

Parliament passed the Cyber Security Act 2023, repealing the Digital Security Act 2018 but retaining the majority of its substantive criminal provisions. Key changes reclassified some offences as bailable and substituted fines for imprisonment in journalist-defamation cases; Amnesty International and others characterised the law as a rebranding rather than a genuine reform, a view borne out by continued prosecutorial use of the legislation.

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission released its 'Regulation for Digital, Social Media and OTT Platforms, 2021' for public consultation, triggered by a January 2021 High Court directive following a 2020 public-interest litigation. The draft required platforms to remove flagged content within 72 hours, disclose the 'first originator' of messages on government order, and appoint local compliance officers; critics likened it to India's IT Rules 2021 and warned of sweeping censorship powers.

Parliament enacted the Digital Security Act (Act No. 46 of 2018), replacing Section 57 of the ICT Act with broader and more punitive provisions. The law established a Digital Security Agency empowered to block online content, created a Prime Minister-chaired Digital Security Council, and set penalties of up to 14 years for vaguely worded offences including 'tarnishing the image of the state' and 'propaganda against the Liberation War'. More than 7,000 cases were filed under the Act before its repeal, the vast majority against journalists, bloggers, and political critics.

Bangladesh blocked Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber, and Tango on 18 November 2015, citing security concerns ahead of the Supreme Court's final ruling upholding death sentences for two senior leaders of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami by the International Crimes Tribunal. The block lasted 32 days (lifted 20 December 2015), establishing an early precedent for government-ordered platform shutdowns tied to political events.

A 2013 amendment to the ICT Act 2006 dramatically sharpened Section 57, raising the maximum prison term from 10 to 14 years, making offences cognisable (permitting warrantless arrest) and non-bailable, and expanding the offence to cover any electronic content 'likely to cause deterioration in law and order or prejudice the image of the state'. Hundreds of journalists, bloggers, and activists were subsequently prosecuted under the amended provision; around 700 cases were filed between 2013 and 2018.

Bangladesh's Parliament passed the ICT Act 2006, establishing the country's first comprehensive legal framework for electronic commerce, digital signatures, and cybercrime. Section 57 of the Act broadly criminalised electronic publications deemed 'offensive', 'defamatory', or likely to 'prejudice the image of the state', creating cyber tribunals as the adjudicating forum. The Act, and especially Section 57, formed the legal basis for all subsequent internet content enforcement until its provisions were carried over into the Digital Security Act 2018.