New Zealand passed Harmful Digital Communications Bill penalizing online bullies with fines and imprisonment of up to three years

New Zealand has approved a legislation that outlaws cyberbullying. The law is regulating content punishing people who are discriminatory, extremist, and hypercritical of religious conviction, sexual orientation and incapacity. Moreover, if the people involved in the interaction are found to initiate "serious emotional distress," they could end up in jail for up to three years.

New Zealand's government has passed the Harmful Digital Communications Bill taking a strong stand opposing online offenders. The new law provides authorities the permission to charge or detain people who have posted destructive content on the Internet, noted in Tech Spot. It marks an extensive assortment of language as damaging, containing every part which is "threatening, intimidating, or menacing, indecent or obscene, or intolerant of a person's race, religion, gender, sexuality, or disability."

As reported on Digital Trends, the law, conceded by a 116-to-5 vote in the New Zealand Parliament, "covers any form of electronic communication, including text messages, photos, recordings, and more. It also defines "harm" as "serious emotional distress," and lays out a detailed description of intimate visual recording."

As soon as an online message is regarded by officials to be harmful, the agency will collaborate with online firms such as Google, Twitter and Facebook by ordering the author to delete the felonious content or by inducing the firm to discard the content themselves. People confirmed engaged in cyberbullying may be charged up to NZ$50,000 (US$33,000) for breaking the law, whereas companies may be charged up to NZ$200,000 (US$134,000).

The law also interdicts online interactions that are considered as inciting or persuading others to compel suicide. Offenders will be jailed for up to three years if found guilty.

There are debates about the law as some quarters perceived that the law is not clear in its definition of harmful digital communications that may just result to restrictions in the freedom of speech.