Kazakhstani journalists, human rights defenders, and civil activists have launched a campaign to collect signatures under an appeal to the president and parliament of the country, in which they call to abandon the adoption of amendments to the legislation that would limit the work of foreign Internet resources, social networks, and messengers.
The text of the appeal was published on the Avaaz community petition website. The petition has already been signed by over 9 thousand citizens.
In September, the Kazakh parliament approved the draft law On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts on the Protection of the Rights of the Child, which contains mechanisms to block the operation of foreign Internet platforms, social networks, and instant messengers on the territory of the country.
For example, the bill proposes to oblige foreign Internet companies to register in Kazakhstan, open an official representative office in the country headed by citizens of Kazakhstan, and store the data of local users on servers located inside the country, and not abroad. If companies refuse to comply with these requirements, then their operations will be blocked. Kazakhstani Internet users rightly fear that the authorities will have official and legal leverage to block Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp, and other social networks and messengers.
“We consider the proposed norms repressive and aimed not at regulating, but controlling the Internet, that is, in fact, at introducing censorship in the country, which is directly prohibited by the Constitution and international human rights standards,” the petition says. – There is a very real risk that large Internet platforms such as Google, Mozilla, or social networks such as Facebook, with its WhatsApp messenger and the social network Instagram, as well as messengers such as Telegram, will refuse to register their offices in Kazakhstan on the proposed conditions, thereby depriving Kazakhstanis of the free Internet ”.
The authors of the appeal do not believe the developers of these amendments, who explain the proposed innovations as caring for children and combating cyberbullying.
“We are convinced that the tactics of carrying out amendments under the pretext of protecting the rights of the child is manipulation. The adoption of these amendments will cause great international damage to the country’s reputation and roll Kazakhstan back in socio-political development. This also contradicts the obligations of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of human rights, part of which are digital rights, namely the right to access and disseminate information, including the right of children to receive and disseminate information; the right to privacy; the right to freedom of association on the Internet; and other human rights. Any restrictions imposed by the state on human rights, even for permissible reasons, such as the fight against cyberbullying, should not deprive a person of his rights, ”the authors of the petition emphasize.
In this regard, they ask the president and parliament of the country to refuse to accept these amendments and, when developing any similar initiatives, continue to accompany them with a discussion with the country’s IT community, human rights and civil society, interest groups, such as, in this case, the children themselves and teenagers, taking into account their best interests, as well as the principle of the evolving capacities of children, to exclude censorship and limit digital human rights.
Recall, as ACCA has already reported, in the study of Internet freedom in the countries of the world, conducted by the international human rights organization Freedom House, Kazakhstan was recognized as a country with a restricted Internet.
Source: https://acca.media/en/kazakhstan-citizens-oppose-blocking-social-networks-and-messengers/