Ortega called for urgent reform of the Cybercrimes Act to legalize censorship on social networks and extend years in prison for committing these crimes, which have been used to imprison opponents, journalists, etc.
Diarrator Daniel Ortega ordered the National Assembly to urgently reform the Special Cybercrime Act (Law 1042) to impose the criminalization of the use of social networks and mobile applications in the country, as well as to increase years in prison for computer crimes, usually used against opponents.
Article 1 of the original Act adopted in 2020 provided for the investigation, prosecution and punishment for crimes committed, through information and communication technologies, but the reform also adds the crimes committed by the use of social networks and mobile applications.
Article two also extends the application of the law to – material authors, intellectuals, necessary co-operators, accomplices or any person who facilitates or favours the commission of the offences provided for therein. It previously provided that the law was of public order and shall apply to those who commit the offences provided for inside and outside Nicaragua.
The reform was approved without question or opposition on Wednesday, September 11, in a National Assembly under the full control of the Ortega dictatorship.
Almost all opponents who have gone through prison for criticizing the regime have been charged with the propagation of fake news, as established by Law 1042. Some of the defendants were imprisoned and prosecuted for only giving “like” a political publication or related to people that the regime despises.
In the trials, according to the release and their defenders, the evidence shown is retweets and I like third-party comments, as the tiktoker Cristobal Geovany López, better known as Tropi Gamer, and academic Freddy Quezada, have recently claimed.
There have also been cases of peasants who didn’t even have a smartphone, nor did they have social networks and were still imprisoned for allegedly committing cybercrimes.
Most of the political prisoners who were prosecuted under the Cybercrid Act have been banished and denationalized.
Critics and opponents call the Cybercritees Act, due to the censorship imposed by the Ortega regime with this.
Increase years in prison
Among the amendments is also the increase in prison sentences for committing some of the above-mentioned offences.
By computer system interference or data, the new penalty is four to seven years. It used to be three to five years old.
For – alteration, damage to the integrity and availability of data, the new penalty is seven to 15 years in prison. Before that, it was four to six years for that crime.
For damage to computer systems, the penalty increases to seven years. The maximum was six years before.
By – propagation or dissemination of false or distorted news through information and communication technologies, the penalty increases to five years in prison. And if the publication incites discrimination, hatred and racial, religious, political violence, among others, it can lead to 10 years in prison. Before, the maximum prison term for this offence was five years.
This last amendment is the latest amendment, the law extends the concept to distorted news or otherwise – when it referred previously to false and/or misdisrepresentated information.
This article has been translated after first appearing in LaPrensaNi