For more news… Click hereFifteen years in prison for ‘alarmist’ and ‘discriminatory’ social media posts as Nicaragua continues crackdown on dissent

Nicaragua’s National Assembly has passed a law to punish with prison terms people who, inside or outside the country, spread messages on social media that are believed to cause “alarm, fear, panic or anxiety” or “incite hatred” of up to fifteen years, plus fines.

According to a statement from parliament, which is controlled by President Ortega’s increasingly authoritarian regime, the penalty for publishing information that causes “alarm, fear, panic or fear” will be up to five years in prison.

For online material that “incites discrimination, hatred and violence on racial, religious, political, economic and social grounds or endangers economic and social stability, public order, sovereign security or public health”, the penalty can be up to ten years in prison.

In circumstances where a social media post is deemed to cause alarm And incitement to discrimination, the maximum prison sentence will be 15 years.

The proposed reforms, which have been described by opposition figures as a ‘gag law’, will tighten an earlier framework set out in the country’s 2020 cybercrime law, officially known as the Special Law on Cybercrime.

Under Article 30 of the existing law, anyone convicted of using a computer to publish or disseminate “false and/or misrepresented information that causes alarm, fear or anxiety among the public, or among a group or sector thereof, to a person or their family” or “threatens national security, economic stability, public order or public health” can already be fined and sentenced to up to four years in prison.

(As in the case of Ireland’s controversial hate crime law, which never defines the term “hate,” the special cybercrime law enacted by Latin America’s newest dictator fails to describe how information can be treated as will be considered ‘false’ or ‘misrepresented’).

On September 8, 2021, the Nicaraguan Public Prosecutor’s Office declared through a press release the filing of charges against human rights activist Amaru Ruiz for the crime of “spreading false news through information and communication technologies,” based on Article 30. The charges related to online posts which he posted about alleged human rights violations against the indigenous population in Nicaragua.

So was the Nicaraguan journalist Víctor Ticay arrested under this law for reporting on a religious procession in 2023, and was subsequently sentenced to eight years in prison for the ‘crime’ of “spreading false information and conspiring to destabilize national integrity”.

However, the Ortega government’s proposals will in fact expand the scope of the special law on cybercrime, which previously only covered crimes committed “through information technology,” to “the use of social networks and mobile phone applications.”

The proposed reforms also amend Article 2 of the Special Law on Cybercrime so that anyone who “facilitates or favors the commission of crimes” can be prosecuted, regardless of whether he or she is in Nicaragua.

These reforms are in line with the regime’s long-standing policy of transnational repression, and will allow targeting of “natural or legal persons.” inside or outside the country” (emphasis added) that express dissenting opinions “through computer systems, new technologies and social networks.”

Approval of the law, which will enter into force as soon as it is published in the government gazette, La Gacetacame just days after another piece of legislation passed that established prison sentences of up to 30 years for Nicaraguans at home or abroad who commit “crimes against the Nicaraguan state.”

In addition to proposals to expand the special law against cybercrime, the Ortega government has given the country’s police the power to raid properties, seize electronic and computer equipment and demand that telephone companies transfer digital information (calls, text messages, etc.) and voice messages, and geolocation) of people under investigation – without the need for a court order.

In what is surely a sign of what is to come under the soon-to-be reformed law, writer, philosopher and academic Freddy Antonio Quezada was arrested at his home in November 2023, just hours after writing. posts on social media who were critical of the Nicaraguan government.

He is one of 135 political prisoners who have since been released, stripped of their citizenship and forced into exile. The Nicaraguan Court of Justice has since ordered that all their assets be seized.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, critics warn that the new cybercrime law will establish total government control over social media.

In an interview with AFP, former Nicaraguan presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga, who is exiled to the United States and now heads the Foundation for the Freedom of Nicaragua, said that by following the “censorship and totalitarian control manual” of regimes like Russia and China Ortega “is not only attacking freedom of expression in Nicaragua, but also cementing his place in the growing club of autocrats seeking to suppress any form of dissent.”

Nicaraguan lawyer Salvador Marenco, who is exiled in Costa Rica, said in a statement that “social media is crucial for exposing serious human rights violations” in Nicaragua, and that the new law extends Ortega’s “policy of transnational repression” .

Since 2018, when widespread protests against the Ortega government broke out, various techniques have been used to silence protests and undermine all criticism and political opposition, including: unlawful use of force by law enforcement officials; arbitrary arrest and detention without due process; attacks on the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association; and the closure of more than 5,000 NGOs.

In September 2024, the UN Human Rights Council debated a report on the situation in Nicaragua, presented by Christian Salazar Volkmann, head of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which also suggested that the new cybercrime law could lead to the ‘repression’ of Nicaraguans in the country could step up. at home and abroad.

“The persecution of opponents of the government or of those perceived as dissenting voices in the country has been gradually expanded and intensified by the government,” the report notes, before adding: “in a context of systematic allegations of repression , the exercise of civil and political rights is becoming increasingly difficult.”