The Proposed Amendments to the Online Safety Bill

The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) has previously raised concerns with the Online Safety Bill (OSB) and challenged certain clauses in the Supreme Court.1 On the 18th of October, during the hearing on the constitutionality of the OSB,2 the Attorney General’s Department of Sri Lanka produced to the Supreme Court a series of amendments that the Government proposed to move during the Committee Stage when the Bill was to be taken up in Parliament. These “Committee Stage Amendments” would make substantial alterations to the Bill that was gazetted. Several of the amendments also deviate from “the merits and principles” of the originally gazetted OSB and thus, are in contravention of Article 78(3) of the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka.3 Subsequently, such substantial change requires the Government of Sri Lanka to withdraw the currently proposed OSB and re-gazette the amended version.