President Luis Abinader sent to the Chamber of Deputies a bill that would combat cybercrime in the Dominican Republic. The bill would replace High-Tech Crimes Law No. 53-07 that currently regulates these matters. It would update the regulatory framework regarding cybercrimes, especially in the case of those that do not have a criminal classification.
The Presidency indicates the bill seeks to achieve the integral protection of the systems that use information and communication technologies, while it establishes measures to prevent, prosecute and punish high-tech and ICT crimes.
The bill typifies each of the cybercrimes and classifies them into cybercrimes against confidentiality, integrity and availability of data and information systems; cybercrimes against persons; financial and theft cybercrimes; cybercrimes against intellectual property; cybercrimes against telecommunications; and cybercrimes against the nation and cyberterrorism.
The bill also provides for the competent bodies for the prosecution and trial of such crimes, including the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Inter-Institutional Commission against Cybercrime, the Department for the Investigation of High Technology Crimes and Offenses (DICAT) and the Division for the Investigation of Computer Crimes (DIDI).
On the other hand, the bill defines the rules of procedural law, which regulate various aspects, such as investigative measures, collection and control of evidence, seizure of assets, jurisdictional competence and public action.
The sustainability of the system and international cooperation are also particularly contemplated.
The bill is submitted at a time when the Senate had recently passed a bill that is being described as a gag law that would require all persons to give permission for the publishing of any claim of corruption in any format. The so-called social media gag bill is now in the Chamber of Deputies.
Vice President Raquel Peña said the Abinader administration would not back a bill that censored free speech, as reported in Diario Libre. She made the remark when asked for the government position on the so-called media gag bill that has passed in the Senate and is doing the rounds in the Chamber of Deputies. Meanwhile, spokesman for the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) in the Chamber of Deputies, Julio Furcal told Diario Libre that the social media restrictions bill that passed in the Senate does not have a chance in the Chamber of Deputies. The PRM is majority in the Chamber of Deputies.
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Presidency
Diario Libre
15 June 2022