Nest Center NGO and MFCC opposes new law on social network

Official statement by Nest Center for Journalism Innovation and Development NGO and Mongolian Fact-checking Center

The Nest Center for Journalism Innovation and Development NGO and its Mongolian Fact-checking Center strongly condemn the new law named “Protecting human rights on social networks”. 

The process of passing the law violated the rule of law. The Law on Legislation of Mongolia regulates the process of creating a new law, but the said law was rushed through Parliament within 2 working days, without having consultation with affected target groups, professional organizations and the public. The process in which the law was passed is the third time since 2022 that the ruling Mongolian People’s Party has passed a law or amendment without following the due process.

After passing a COVID-19 regulation (Law on Prevention, Combat, and Mitigation of Social and Economic Impacts of the COVID-19) within 11 days, the Mongolian People’s Party amended Mongolia’s Constitution in a record 1 day, amended the Criminal code in 2 days in August and December 2022 respectively. 

Also, the law which claims to “Protect human rights on social networks” has a potential to limit freedom of expression. It aims to create a new body under a government’s cabinet and give it the power to monitor social media, conclude whether a content is erroneous, and if needed require for the content to be taken down. It also aims to give the government the possibility to shut down all communication networks, including the internet, broadcasting or postal services partially or completely based on the judgment of one cabinet member. 

As an internationally recognised local CSO, a signatory of the International Fact-checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter and Meta’s only Third Party Fact-checking Partner in Mongolia, we can not agree with neither the process that the law was passed nor what the law is aiming to regulate. We have been approached by both the Communications Regulatory Committee and the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications unofficially since the law was passed on January 20th, inviting our organization to participate in the implementation of this law as a member of the unit that would monitor social networks. We have objected to both requests, as we will not take part in implementing an illegally approved law. We do not believe the faults within the law can be corrected by a regulation. And we would like to emphasize once again that the process and the regulation put forward by this new law both contradict strongly with the center’s underlying value to ensure access to high quality information while promoting freedom of expression. 

Nest Center and the Mongolian Fact-Checking Center are advocating for the President of Mongolia to veto the law, which would force the lawmakers to look back on their decision. We are also looking into the international justice system for possible solutions. 

With this letter, we are reaffirming our position and asking the international community to support us in our battle to prevent Mongolia’s democratic institutions from weakening but building a collaborative effort to strengthen it further. 

We will continue to advocate to be able to call Mongolia the Champion of Democracy in the region.

Duuya Baatar,

Co-Founder and Chairperson at Nest Center for Journalism Innovation and Development NGO

Co-Founder at Mongolian Fact-checking Center