Cybercrime law to be applied in its present state—Minister
Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu has said the Financial Transaction and Cyber Security law is meant to protect citizens from being injured by content posted on the Internet; hence, will be enforced in its current state.
Speaking during the official opening of the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) open day in Blantyre on Monday, he said people should not complain when they get arrested for insulting public figures yet they want the same law to protect them when they are insulted on cyberspace.
Said the minister: “The same law that will be used when you have been insulted will be the same law used when Lazarus Chakwera is insulted.”
In his presentation, however, Macra director general Daud Suleman said the authority has extracted some aspects from the Financial Transaction and Cyber Security Act enacted in 2016 and expanded them into detailed laws.
He said: “The Data Protection Act has been expanded from a paragraph in the Information and Cyber Security Act.
“We have now become digital citizens so it’s now important that citizens are protected in their digital nature.”
Suleman said the authority is currently carrying out awareness activities of the law which became effective on June 2 2024.
He said Macra has also developed the Cyber Security Bill, Cyber Crimes Bill, E-evidence Bill and the Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Bill.
“In the Cyber Crimes Bill we will put in plain text on the dos and don’ts, and list the 38 crimes that you can commit using your phone,” said Suleman.
The Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship Act will address intellectual property protection in the digital space. The Financial Transaction and Cyber Security Act recently sparked debate following arrests of people for allegedly insulting President Chakwera and spreading false information after the military plane crash on June 10 that claimed the lives of vice-president Saulos Chilima, former first lady Patricia Shanil Dzimbiri and seven others.
