Cyber sanctions

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

A proposal before Parliament’s Services Committee would police ‘vulgar content’ online, setting prison terms of up to three years, fines of up to BD10,000, and takedown orders that internet firms must carry out within 24 hours.

The draft covers all electronic content published or passed around in Bahrain, and any material outside the country that affects Bahraini society, whatever the platform or publisher. It would ban the publication, broadcast, reposting, or circulation of vulgar material by electronic means.

The competent authority could issue immediate orders to block or delete offending content. Service providers would be bound to act within the 24-hour window. A specialist technical committee would watch for breaches and file reports to the authority for legal action.

Penalties would range from three months to three years in prison and fines between BD1,000 and BD10,000, or both.

The punishment would be doubled if the content targets minors, or if it is pushed on public electronic platforms.

According to the explanatory memorandum from MP Hanan Fardan, the plan answers the spread of vulgar and indecent online material that harms social values and moral security.

The note says current rules are scattered across existing laws and do not give a full set of tools for this field, so a dedicated statute is needed with clear offences, firm penalties, and workable steps to enforce them, with a focus on young people and children.

The memorandum adds that rapid growth in digital links and platforms has made it easy to share a wide range of material, some of which strains long-held religious, social, and cultural values in Bahrain.

It says lawmakers should keep pace through a new, full legal frame to curb the harm from vulgar and indecent content.

While the Penal Code and the Cybercrime Law carry general provisions, they do not address all forms of electronic vulgar content.