{"id":407309,"date":"2020-06-12T12:46:36","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T10:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=407309"},"modified":"2020-06-12T12:46:36","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T10:46:36","slug":"3-new-bills-are-a-step-closer-to-becoming-law-including-rules-around-whatsapp-and-online-messages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/407309\/3-new-bills-are-a-step-closer-to-becoming-law-including-rules-around-whatsapp-and-online-messages\/","title":{"rendered":"3 new bills are a step closer to becoming law &#8211; including rules around WhatsApp and online messages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Parliament&#8217;s Select Committee on Security and Justice has adopted the Cybercrimes Bill and other key pieces of legislation.<\/p>\n<p>The Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill focuses on criminalising the theft and interference of data and bringing South Africa\u2019s cyber security laws in line with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n<p>This includes criminalising the distribution of harmful data messages, imposing obligations to report cyber crime, and creating offences which have a bearing on cyber crime<\/p>\n<p>Concerns have previously been raised about the \u2018<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/technology\/283462\/you-could-soon-face-jail-time-for-sending-these-3-types-of-facebook-or-whatsapp-messages-in-south-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">vagueness<\/a><\/strong>\u2019 of these messaging rules, especially because of the steep consequences attached to them.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, a previous version of the bill stated that any person who contravenes one of the provisions is liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding<strong>\u00a0three years<\/strong>, or to both a fine and imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p>These provisions include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A message which incites damage to property or violence;<\/li>\n<li>A message which threatens persons with damage to property or violence;<\/li>\n<li>A message which unlawfully contains an intimate image.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The committee indicated that it has subsequently approved amendments to the bill to address some of these concerns.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The proposed amendments agreed to by the committee includes altering the tone of the Bill to reflect non-binary language, as required by considerations of gender-neutrality, equality, dignity and identity and the restructuring of clause 16 to specifically reflect the impact of the considerations in criminalising the disclosure of data messages of intimate images,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<p>Committee chairperson Shahidabibi Shaikh said all the concerns raised by the committee were addressed by the department and the parliamentary legal advisor in the Bill.<\/p>\n<p>The chairperson also highlighted the fact that this bill, once enacted, will be the first non-binary legislation to be passed in South Africa.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Civil unions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The committee also agreed to the Civil Union Amendment Bill.<\/p>\n<p>The aim of the Bill is to repeal section 6 of the Civil Union Act, which allows a marriage officer to inform the minister that he or she objects on the ground of conscience, religion, and belief to solemnising a civil union between persons of the same sex.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to note that the marriage officers referred to in the Bill are public servants employed by the Department of Home Affairs, the committee said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Firearms amnesty<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The committee further considered and adopted the notice of declaration of amnesty in terms of the Firearms Control Act. This follows a request from the South African Police Service (SAPS) for a new six months\u2019 firearms amnesty, commencing from August this year.<\/p>\n<p>The committee resolved to agree to the new amnesty, but categorically stated that the Saps should provide more communication to the public regarding amnesty.<\/p>\n<p>The committee heard that granting another amnesty period will afford the communities another opportunity to surrender illegal and unwanted firearms and\/or ammunition, in an effort to curb the proliferation of illegal firearms in circulation.<\/p>\n<p>Shaikh said the reports, which were adopted by the majority of members, on these matters will now be sent to the National Council of Provinces with the recommendation for adoption.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/407231\/government-wants-to-make-language-changes-at-south-africas-schools-including-matric-exams\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Government wants to make language changes at South Africa\u2019s schools \u2013 including matric exams<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Parliament&#8217;s Select Committee on Security and Justice has adopted the Cybercrimes Bill and other key pieces of legislation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":245533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9878],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-407309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407309"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":407337,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407309\/revisions\/407337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}