News reports, court documents, lawyers, victims and relatives of victims were used as source material.
These findings were presented at a webinar 'The Ordeal: Five Years of the Digital Security Act 2018-2023', organized by the Center for Governance Studies, a non-governmental research organisation, on Tuesday.
In view of the criticism, the government “amended” the Digital Security Act in September last year and rebranded it as the Cyber Security Act.
In the webinar, Ali Riaz presented research findings which showed that 4,520 people were charged under the Digital Security Act in five years, while 1,549 people were arrested. On an average, 24 cases were registered in a month while 26 were arrested.
Politicians constitute the highest percentage among the accused, at 32 percent, followed by journalists (29.4 percent). About 78 percent of the complainants are associated with the politics of ruling Awami League.
Journalists have been implicated the most for publishing news. Most of the accused journalists are from outside Dhaka.
190 cases were registered for defaming the Prime Minister.
About 908 cases were registered under the Digital Security Act for posting comments on Facebook, while the remaining 528 cases were registered for hurting religious sentiments.
