Following Questionable Election, Honduran Government Debuts New Censorship Law

[Judi Lynn]

from the securing-the-cyber-so-future-generations-can-waste-away-in-prison dept

Free Speech
by Tim Cushing
Thu, Apr 19th 2018 3:33am

The masterplan for censorship: follow up a highly-questionable election with a "cybersecurity" law granting the government power to shut down critics and dissenting views. That's what's happening in Honduras, following the reinstallation of Juan Orlando Hernandez as president following an election "filled with irregularities."

The new law mandates the policing of "hate speech," as defined by a government that would love to see its critics deprived of an online platform. Whatever the government declares to be hateful must be taken down within 24 hours. Failure triggers fines and third-party platforms will be held responsible for content created by users.

While the new law does not directly target the social media platforms, activists say: "In its current state, it requires any service or website that includes user-generated content to process complaints and remove “hate speech” or discriminatory content within 24 hours."

"Should online intermediaries fail to do so, their services could be fined or blocked. The latest draft of the bill also creates a national cybersecurity committee to receive reports and relay them to websites and companies, and to develop policy strategies on issues ranging from cybercrime to hate speech and fake news," Javier Pallero, Digital Rights activist focusing on the Latin American region explained, according to Access Now.

More:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180414/09232039625/following-questionable-election-honduran-government-debuts-new-censorship-law.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+techdirt%2Ffeed+%28Techdirt%29

[GatoGordo]

1. Ortega in Nicaragua beat them to it. He shut down all opposition news sources last week

Venezuela has its new "anti hate and intolerance" law.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-08/venezuela-passes-anti-hate-law-threatening-media-censorship

Where is the outrage?