# Parliament enacts the Digital Security Act Date: 2018 ## The fact On 8 October 2018 Bangladesh enacted the Digital Security Act, a completed speech-and-platform offence used against journalists and critics on [Hasina](/people/sheikh-hasina)’s watch. ## Context Jatiya Sangsad passed. She promulgated. HRW and local editors documented chilling. A statute is still a dated [civic-space](/drivers/civic-space) cost. 2018 election is a neighbouring later mandate row. 2024 crackdown later used broader force. Bangladesh’s prime minister chairs the cabinet and can order security forces under statute. She does not write an Indian extradition order, a UN body-count as if it were a gazette, a 2026 Tarique Rahman cabinet minute, or an ICJ merits judgment. She fled on 5 August 2024; as of August 2026 she is in India, not in office. Country is Bangladesh, not Pakistan. A RAB warrant is not a completed finding that every disappeared person was thereby a militant. Allegation of a stolen 2018 count is stored as a contested election, not as a completed steal. A 2026 Delhi audio is not a return. ## Evidence and sources Department of Printing and Publications Bangladesh carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently. ## Significance The path is digital rights and [democratic resilience](/drivers/democratic-resilience): a completed DSA is a chilling-effect instrument on online speech. ## What is established and what is not Established: an 8 October 2018 Digital Security Act, independently reported as passed and used. Not established: that every charged post was false, or a unique later conviction coefficient from gazetting day. What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions. The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit. She promulgated. Police charged. Editors faced cases.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Parliament enacts the Digital Security Act, not a later speech about Parliament enacts the Digital Security Act. Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. Parliament enacts the Digital Security Act on 2018-10-08 is not a licence to treat every later Department of Printing and Publications Bangladesh communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average Parliament enacts the Digital Security Act into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to AL majority passed. She promulgated. Police charged. Editors faced cases. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. ## People - Sheikh Hasina: https://factrail.ai/people/sheikh-hasina ## Drivers - Digital-Rights and Platform-Power Regulation: https://factrail.ai/drivers/tech-digital-rights-regulation - Democratic Resilience: https://factrail.ai/drivers/democratic-resilience ## Sources - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bangladesh-politics-idUSKCN1MI0K4 - https://www.dpp.gov.bd/ ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/bd-hasina-dsa-2018