El Salvador’s recently approved cybersecurity and data protection laws contain sweeping provisions that threaten media freedom and privacy rights, Human Rights Watch said.
El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly, dominated by President Nayib Bukele’s party, Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas), approved both laws on November 12, 2024. The cybersecurity law establishes a State Cybersecurity Agency (Agencia de Ciberseguridad del Estado), led by a presidential appointee, to oversee both cybersecurity and data protection. The data protection law creates a ‘right to be forgotten,’ which as drafted gives the agency overly broad powers to order the deletion of information about individuals online.
‘These new laws could be used to delete online publications that are critical of the government under the guise of data protection,’ said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. ‘This is a recipe for censorship and opacity.’ ”
