Few weeks ago, the Guinean government tabled before the National Assembly a bill relating to cybersecurity and the protection of personal data. The Guinea Association of Bloggers (Ablogui) sent the bill to the Internet Without Borders, an organization specialised in the defense of freedom of expression on the internet, for further analysis.
The African League of Cyber-Activists (Africtivistes) welcomes the willingness of the Guinean authorities to fill a void in adapting its legislation to technological developments.
However, it appears from the findings of the analysis of Internet Without Borders that some provisions of this bill are serious threats to the democratic principles Africtivistes is very attached to. This is the case of Articles 71 and 72 that would allow the establishment of online censorship or articles 36 and 37 criminalizing whistleblowing.
For Africtivistes, such provisions have no place in a democracy. Also, the vagueness and lack of clarity of certain provisions of the bill leave room for too much interpretation that could be detrimental to litigants.
Therefore Africtiviste joins Ablogui, Internet Without Borders, and other civil society organizations in Guinean to demand the removal of all draconian provisions and clarifying all those ambiguous in the bill to avoid that once passed these provisions be used to repress freedoms already guaranteed by the Constitution.
