Censorship may reach a new level in Kazakhstan. This will happen if the government accepts the proposal of Senator Bakytzhan Zhumagulov that the country needs a law on social networks that provides for increasing the responsibility of users for disseminating inadequate information.
At the parliamentary hearings on the topic of national values in the era of globalization, the deputy of the Senate (Upper Chamber) of the Parliament Bakytzhan Zhumagulov proposed to develop a law to regulate the dissemination of information on social networks.
“Among foreign politicians, there are those who disseminate false information with signs of separatism. Kazakhstan must be ready for these challenges and protect national values. During the pandemic, ideological viruses are also spreading around the world. False information transmits this virus through social networks instantly. Therefore, we need to pass a law on social media. In the context of globalization, young people don’t even notice how they fall under the influence of certain unwanted Western groups. They get into trouble due to the poisoning of their own brains. This is how cognitive technologies become a means of influencing public consciousness. For us, the protection of national interests and national values is an important wealth,” the Senator said.
At the same time, he added that the adoption of such a law wouldn’t mean restricting freedom of speech, but would strengthen the responsibility of users before the law for the dissemination of inaccurate information.
According to the Committee on Legal Statistics and Special Records of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Kazakhstan, 67 criminal cases were initiated under the article “Dissemination of deliberately false information” in 2020. 10 of them were classified as grave or especially grave crimes.
As a rule, the law enforcement system of Kazakhstan most often refers to these crimes various posts and comments published by bloggers, activists or journalists on social networks.
For example, in September last year, bloggers were prosecuted for criticizing the authorities and reporting corruption.
On June 22, 2019, civil activist Alnur Ilyashev was sentenced. According to the case file, he “published posts on social networks containing negative information about the public association “Nur Otan Party”, chaired by the first President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev”. Ilyashev was sentenced to three years of restriction of freedom.
It should also be clarified that Senator Bakytzhan Zhumagulov has a personal interest in passing the law on social networks. The fact is that in August 2013, when Zhumagulov held the post of Minister of Education and Science, an anonymous letter from education workers appeared on social networks, in which Zhumagulov was accused of plagiarism while writing his doctoral dissertation. With the help of social networks again, a terrible scandal erupted in this regard, as a result of which Zhumagulov was dismissed from his post.
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