Issuing a regulation to regulate digital content that threatens public freedoms

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[size=52]Issuing a regulation to regulate digital content that threatens public freedoms[/size]

[size=45]Yesterday, Tuesday, the Media and Communications Commission issued Regulation No. (1) for the year 2023 regulating digital content in Iraq, while this regulation aroused the resentment of many bloggers, writers, content makers, and specialists because it restricts freedoms, in addition to adopting non-scientific and professional foundations in writing it.[/size]
[size=45]According to the regulations, of which Al-Mada obtained a copy, the Commission indicated that “the requirements for its issuance come in order to organize and promote digital content in Iraq, and the desire of the Commission to actively contribute to promoting upbringing, education, organization, consolidation and promotion of digital use in all fields in Iraq Through cooperation with the official authorities.[/size]
[size=45]The regulation drew attention to “the relentless desire to immunize society and special groups such as women, children and youth, as well as to protect the rights of users in digital content in Iraq from individuals, entities and institutions, and out of belief in supporting digital leadership and creativity in sober content, especially content that supports national, cultural, intellectual, scientific and literary values ​​and constants.”[/size]
[size=45]The Commission affirmed that “the decision of the regulation comes based on the powers granted to the Commission by Order (65) of 2004, and in line with the articles of the Constitution that guarantee freedom of expression and guided by the provisions of Article (19) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, which granted every person the right to enjoy freedom of opinion.” and express and embrace opinions without harassment.”[/size]
[size=45]The most prominent of what was mentioned in the objectives of the regulation, Article (2), included: “First: organizing digital content in Iraq by achieving optimal and safe use of platforms and websites in a manner that respects individual privacy, freedom of opinion and expression, achieves interaction and social communication, and protects social relations, as well as second: providing legal protection Third: Reducing the misuse of digital, degrading or abusive content and monitoring false and misleading information that would harm human dignity, national unity, civil peace or national security. Fourth: Contribute to reducing the adoption, promotion, endorsement, incitement or Paving or justifying crimes, terrorism, atonement, or other violations through digital content.[/size]
[size=45]In turn, specialists pointed out that “the list was written in a quick manner and in line with what is currently going on in terms of courts and imprisonment of celebrities on social media because of their bad content, and it seems that the authority wanted to prove its existence and have a role in the process by hastening to issue a list to show itself only.”[/size]
[size=45]They added: “What is most wrong with the regulation is its first article (definitions), which was written in a constructive rather than scientific manner, and it undoubtedly indicates the non-involvement of specialized professors in the faculties of media, political science, law, and even communication systems,” calling at the same time for “the need to There will be workshops and working sessions that precede the list in order to ripen it and produce it in a way that suits the requirements of the Iraqi reality in a more accurate, scientific and legal way.[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi judiciary had issued prison sentences for a number of activists on social media, including model Nour Essam Abdel-Rahman, nicknamed (Assal Imad) and Muhammad Abdul-Karim Hussein Al-Bawi, nicknamed (Hassan Sajma), for a period of two years, in addition to a one-year prison sentence. Ahmed Ali Hamid Shalash, nicknamed (Hamudi Prestige), Ali Muhammad Jarmat Sayed, nicknamed (Sayed Ali), while Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi Halhout, nicknamed (Umm Fahd), was sentenced to six months in prison on charges of degrading content.[/size]
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