Nicaragua’s National Assembly has passed a law to punish people who, inside or outside the country, disseminate social media posts deemed likely to cause “alarm, fear, panic, or distress” or “incite hatred”, with prison sentences of up to fifteen years, plus fines.
According to a statement from the parliament, which is controlled by President Ortega’s increasingly authoritarian regime, the punishment for publishing information that causes “alarm, fear, panic, or distress” will be up to five years in prison.
For online material that “incites discrimination, hatred and violence on racial, religious, political, economic and social grounds or endangers economic and social stability, public order, sovereign security or public health”, the sentence will be up to 10 years’ imprisonment.
In circumstances where a social media post is deemed to cause alarm and incite discrimination, the maximum jail sentence will be 15 years.
The proposed reforms, which have been described as a “gag law” by opposition figures, will tighten an earlier framework established by the country’s 2020 cybercrime law, officially known as the Special Law on Cybercrime.
Under Article 30 of the existing law, anyone convicted of using a computer to publish or disseminate “false and/or misrepresented information, which causes alarm, fear, anxiety among the population, or to a group or sector of it, to a person or their family” or “threatens national security, economic stability, public order, or public health” can already be fined and sentenced to up to four years in prison.
(As in the case of Ireland’s controversial Hate Crime Bill, in which the term ‘hate’ is never defined, the Special Law on Cybercrime enacted by Latin America’s newest dictator fails to describe how information will be deemed ‘false’ or ‘misrepresented’.)
On September 8th 2021, the Nicaraguan Public Prosecutor’s Office declared through a press release the filing of an indictment against human rights campaigner Amaru Ruiz for the crime of “propagating false news through information and communication technologies”, based on Article 30. The accusations related to online posts he made regarding alleged human rights violations against indigenous populations in Nicaragua.
Nicaraguan journalist Víctor Ticay was also arrested under this law for reporting on a religious procession in 2023, and was subsequently sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for the ‘crime’ of “disseminating false information and conspiracy to destabilise national integrity”.
However, the Ortega government’s proposals will in fact expand the scope of the Special Law on Cybercrime, which previously addressed only crimes committed “through information technology”, to include “the use of social networks and cell phone applications”.
The proposed reforms also amend Article 2 of the Special Law on Cybercrimes, so that anyone who “facilitates of favours the commission of crimes” can be prosecuted, irrespective of whether they are in Nicaragua.
These reforms are in line with the regime’s longstanding policy of transnational repression, and will allow for the targeting of “natural or legal persons inside or outside the country” [emphasis added] who express dissent “through computer systems, new technologies and social networks”.
Approval of the law, which will go into effect once published in the government’s official gazette, La Gaceta, came just days after another piece of legislation was passed establishing prison sentences of up to 30 years for Nicaraguans at home or abroad who commit “crimes against the Nicaraguan State”.
In addition to proposals to expand the Special Law on Cybercrimes, the Ortega government has given the country’s police force the authority to raid properties, seize electronic and computer equipment, and demand telephone companies hand over the digital information (calls, text and voice messages, and geolocation) of people under investigation — without needing a court order.
In what is no doubt a sign of things to come under the soon-to-be reformed law, the writer, philosopher and academic Freddy Antonio Quezada was arrested at his home in November 2023, just hours after writing social media posts that were critical of the Nicaraguan government.
He is one of 135 political prisoners who has since been released, stripped of their citizenship, and forced into exile. The Nicaraguan Court of Justice has since ordered that all of their assets by confiscated.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, critics are warning that the new cybercrime law will establish total government control over social media.
In an interview with AFP, the former Nicaraguan presidential candidate Félix Maradiaga, who is exiled in the United States and now heads the Foundation for the Freedom of Nicaragua, said that by following the “censorship and totalitarian control manual” of regimes like Russian and China, Ortega “not only attacks freedom of expression in Nicaragua, but he also solidifies his place in the growing club of autocrats who seek to stifle any form of dissent”.
Nicaraguan lawyer Salvador Marenco, who is exiled in Costa Rica, said in a statement that “social media crucial for denouncing the severe human rights violations” in Nicaragua, and the new law expands Ortega’s “policy of transnational repression.”
Since 2018, when widespread protests against the Ortega government broke out, various techniques have been used to silence protest and undermine all criticism and political opposition, including: unlawful use of force by law enforcement officials; arbitrary arrest and detention without fair trial; attacks on the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association; and the shutting down of over 5000 NGOs.
In September 2024, the UN Human Rights Council debated a report on the situation in Nicaragua, presented by Christian Salazar Volkmann, head of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which also suggested the new cybercrime law could intensify the “repression” of Nicaraguans at home and abroad.
“The persecution of opponents of the Government or those perceived as dissenting voices in the country has progressively been extended and intensified by the Government,” it notes, before adding: “[i]n a context of systematic allegations of repression, the exercise of civil and political rights is increasingly difficult”.
