Cyber bills 'invite tighter central control'

Cyber bills 'invite tighter central control'

More stringent consumer protection measures are needed to ensure the government's digital economy-related laws protect people's rights, a consumer protection group says.

Boonyuen Sirithum, a committee member of the Independent Organisation for Consumer Protection (IOCP), said the bills give the government too much say over people's lives.

Increasing consumer protection in laws related to the digital economy, especially Section 35 of the cyber security bill, will prevent abuse of power by state authorities, she said.

Ms Boonyuen said one bill creates an organisation that will allocate radio frequencies and regulate the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors. The organisation will replace the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) and answer to the national digital economy committee, chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.

"The government has drawn up 10 bills on the digital economy. They have written them to centralise power more, instead of sharing power with consumers," said Ms Boonyuen. She said the NBTC should not be dissolved but made more efficient.

"We want to see the 10 bills before they are resubmitted to the cabinet," Ms Boonyuen said.

The group will submit details of its demands to Gen Prayut and the National Legislative Assembly (NLA).

The government has admitted the bills go too far and is reviewing them. Moving to head off criticism of the bills, Gen Prayut said yesterday the measures have not been finalised, despite them having passed their first reading in the NLA.

He said the NLA committees vetting the bills could be amending them. However, the process needs to speed up because the government is in a race against time to get its work done.

The prime minister insisted the bills are not aimed at eroding the public's privacy. "Any move to view personal data [by authorities] must be clearly justified or it will violate human rights," he said.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT