The Minister of Government Communication and the official spokesperson for the government, Faisal Al-Shboul, said, on Monday, that the draft cybercrime law will be urgently referred to the House of Representatives before the start of the next special session.

Al-Shboul explained, through the “Voice of the Kingdom” program, that the draft cybercrime law is with the Legal Committee in the Council of Ministers, with the aim of final drafting.

And a royal decree was issued calling the National Assembly to meet in an extraordinary session, starting on Sunday, the sixteenth of July in the year 2023 AD, in order to pass draft laws, including the draft cybercrime law for the year 2023.

The draft law will include tougher financial penalties, according to Al-Shaboul, who indicated that there were 16,000 complaints in 2022 related to cybercrimes, and in 6 months of this year, there were 8,000 complaints.

He said that the draft law has no ministry responsible for it, and it has nothing to do with media laws, and the entire government is responsible for it.

Al-Shboul spoke about the most prominent provisions of the draft cybercrime law, which is intentionally entering the information network or information systems without permission with the intent of deleting, destroying, disclosing, changing or encoding, and this is a crime.

As well as violating security, foreign relations, public safety and the national economy, and creating an account or page and attributing it to another person.

Among the titles of the basic articles of the law are hacking networks and software with the intention of disabling them, entering intentionally and without authorization on electronic payment methods, attacking money transfer technology and banking services for banks and financial companies, and electronic fraud or impersonation to obtain movable or immovable money.

As well as promoting a password, data or symbols for the purpose of committing crimes, and promoting pornographic works, especially if they are directed at children and juveniles.

In response to a question about the existence of a prison sentence in Article 11 regarding publishing or republishing what is considered hate speech through networks or websites, Al-Shboul said that the existence of imprisonment allows for arrest, and indicated that the law is designed for two issues, the first is protection and the second is deterrence, and this article deters before commit one of these crimes.

He explained that journalists in Jordan are protected by the press and media laws, the press and publication law, and the audio-visual law.