Jordan’s King Approves Bill That Criminalizes Online Anonymity, Publication Of Police Officers Names/Photos

Free Speech

from the King-Control-Freak dept

Jordan will never be mistaken for a human rights haven. The State Department’s assessment of the kingdom of Jordan’s human rights environment is, at best, extremely dismal.

Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment by government authorities; arbitrary arrest and detention; political prisoners or detainees; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media, including harassment and intimidation of journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, censorship, and enforcement of and threat to enforce criminal libel laws; serious restrictions on internet freedom; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operation of nongovernmental organizations and civil society organizations; inability of citizens to elect their executive branch of government or upper house of parliament; lack of investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence, including but not limited to domestic or intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and other harmful practices; violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons; and significant restrictions on workers’ freedom of association, including threats against labor activists.

That definitely explains why the ruler of Jordan, King Abdullah II, would sign a bill making this hideous environment even worse. (It also possibly explains why NSO Group chose to sell its spyware to this country. The Israeli-based malware firm has definitely shown a predilection for hawking surveillance tech to human rights abusers.)

King Abdullah II is adding to residents’ misery with the passage of new law that’s supposed to somehow unify the nation by giving the government even more ways to punish people for saying or doing things the government doesn’t like.

The King of Jordan approved a bill Saturday to punish online speech deemed harmful to national unity, according to the Jordanian state news agency, legislation that has drawn accusations from human rights groups of a crackdown on free expression in a country where censorship is on the rise.

The measure makes certain online posts punishable with months of prison time and fines. These include comments “promoting, instigating, aiding, or inciting immorality,” demonstrating ”contempt for religion” or “undermining national unity.”

There’s nothing quite like tying a chosen religion to a non-representative form of government. When you do that, you can start writing laws that define “morality” or “unity” in self-serving ways without having to worry about getting your legislation rejected by people actually willing to serve their constituents or rejected by courts as blatantly illegal violations of guaranteed rights.

The country’s government apparently assumes the humans it presides over have no rights. So, they’ll be subject to arrest and possible imprisonment for saying things the government doesn’t like. On top of that, they can expect to be punished for attempting to protect themselves from this punishment, or for being so bold as to point out wrongdoing by law enforcement.

It also punishes those who publish names or pictures of police officers online and outlaws certain methods of maintaining online anonymity.

The king and his most immediate subservients want to be able to easily identify people in need of punishment for violating these new draconian measures. And they don’t want anyone pointing out who’s being tasked with handling arrests for this new list of speech crimes.

As with so many censorial laws are these days, it’s an amendment to an existing “cybercrime” bill — the sort of handy foundational material autocrats can use to justify increased domestic surveillance and widespread silencing/punishing of dissent.

Then there’s this, which makes you wonder why the State Department ever bothered taking a look at the human rights situation in Jordan in the first place.

The measure is the latest in a series of crackdowns on freedom of expression in Jordan, a key U.S. ally seen as an important source of stability in the volatile Middle East.

Come on, America. Make better friends. Buddying up with someone more closely aligned to the religion-based dictators surrounding him than the ideals that turned this country into the leader of the free world is never going to work out well.

Filed Under: anonymity, free speech, harmful to national unity, hate speech, jordan