Human Rights Watch calls on Libyan parliament to revoke anti-cybercrime law

Human Rights Watch has called on Libya’s House of Representatives to repeal a 2022 Anti-Cybercrime Law, which the NGO says it “restricts freedoms of speech”, and urging authorities in eastern Libya to “immediately release anyone they are holding under this law for peaceful expression.”

“Libyans should have the right to free expression whether online or offline,” said Hanan Salah, associate Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “It is not OK to trample on that right in the name of fighting cybercrime.”

“The Anti-Cybercrime Law adds to the slew of existing laws in Libya that violate basic rights and freedoms and that need to be reformed, including on freedom of speech, assembly, association and so-called crimes against the state,” Salah said.

According to Human Rights Watch, the key shortcomings of the Libyan Anti-Cybercrime Law include “vague and overbroad definitions that could invite prosecution for peaceful expression and punishment with prison terms of up to 15 years and stiff fines. In one example, the law stipulates that the use of the internet and new technologies is lawful only if “public order and morality” are respected.”

It stipulates that anyone who “through the world-wide web or the use of any other electronic means, propagates or publishes information or data threatening public security or peace” in Libya or any other country, could face a lengthy prison term.

“Phrases such as “threatening public security or peace,” which also appear in other Libyan legislation, are unacceptably broad in any law governing speech acts,” Human Rights Watch said.

Four United Nations experts have criticized the law as infringing the rights of free expression, privacy, and association and said it should be revoked.

In their March 2022 commentary, the UN experts said the bill under consideration at that time “could have a grave impact on the enjoyment of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the right to privacy.” The experts are the special rapporteurs on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; the situation of human rights defenders, and the right to privacy.