Speakers at a discussion urged the government and policymakers to treat cybersecurity as an integral part of the country’s economic infrastructure rather than merely as a law enforcement issue.
They said trust in digital platforms was essential for the growth of the creative and platform economies, and called for a broader “politics of care” encompassing digital well-being, privacy rights and critical digital literacy among people from all sections of society.
The remarks came at a session titled “From ICT Act to Cyber Security Ordinance” at the Bengal Delta Conference at InterContinental Dhaka this noon.
Presenting a keynote titled, “Legislating the Creative: From ICT Act to Cyber Security Act 2023”, session moderator Imran Ferdous, assistant professor and head of the Department of Media and Communication at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), said the country’s digital governance and creative economy had developed along two separate trajectories.
“Bangladesh’s digital landscape began taking shape with the enactment of the ICT Act in 2006 and has since gone through five rounds of legislation, each expanding the authority of the state,” he said.
In contrast, the creative economy received formal recognition only in the current fiscal year, with a Tk 800 crore allocation reflecting the state’s intention to value creative labour, he added.
Mohammad Imdadur Rahman, managing director and chief executive officer of Bangladesh Satellite Company Limited, said modern sectors ranging from online banking and digital marketing to healthcare, higher education and energy depended on secure digital systems.
“Everywhere we should start seeing cybersecurity infrastructure as part of our business infrastructure,” he said.
Imdadur said strong laws were necessary, but enforcement remained a major challenge. Referring to an alleged data breach involving two lakh customer records from a local grocery chain, he said the absence of accountability showed the need for stricter data protection mechanisms.
He said Bangladesh could draw lessons from the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and similar frameworks in Japan, South Korea and the Nordic countries, which set out ways to protect citizens’ digital well-being.
“As a nation, we have to include our citizens’ digital well-being into the politics of care. We have to make sure that their privacy, accessibility to digital services, cybersecurity, digital literacy and protection from AI abuse are ensured,” he said.
Imdadur also warned against “data colonialism”, saying data generated by local users were often extracted and monetised by global platforms without returning comparable value to the domestic economy.
AKM Fahim Mashroor, co-founder and chief executive officer of bdjobs, called for a nationwide campaign to promote responsible digital behaviour and digital literacy.
Expressing concern over online discourse, he said many offensive or irresponsible comments on social media came from educated people, including university graduates.
“Cybersecurity literacy is the solution. It is not only that you have a phone in your hand; you also have a responsibility,” he said.
Md Mohiul Islam, assistant professor at IUB’s Department of Media and Communication, stressed the need to address the digital divide, particularly in relation to AI and deepfakes.
He called for new courses and academic programmes at universities, alongside training and research opportunities for teachers.
“From the tertiary university level, new courses and programmes need to be launched. Before launching these programmes, training and research opportunities must be created for educators so that they can guide students on navigating AI and regulatory frameworks,” he said.
Dilshad Hossain Dodul, assistant professor at IUB’s Department of Media and Communication, drew attention to online harassment, data exploitation and the digital safety of women and children.
“Data colonialism means that while we were once physical colonies where resources were extracted by foreign powers, today the data we produce is being taken away by large corporate entities,” she said.
She said the “politics of care” should extend to ordinary users, including rickshaw pullers using mobile financial services and domestic workers consuming online content and unknowingly leaving digital footprints.
The session ended with a question-and-answer segment focusing on user awareness, enforcement of data protection laws and the ethical use of AI.
