Pages

24 August 2024

Russia and China Cheer UN Cybercrime Convention

Tobias B. Bacherle

The UN Convention on Cybercrime confirmed my worst worries. Digital authoritarianism won. Internet freedom and human rights lost.

The reactions puzzle me. This bad deal brought unconcealed joy, and happy tweets from diplomats. After three years, the ad hoc working group has agreed on a Cybercrime Convention. Hooray!? Unfortunately, not.

The convention touts creating an international set of rules that, at first glance, appear to complement the fight against crime in the digital space and translate it into international law. However, the agreed document has little to do with these decent goals.

Ever since Moscow first pushed for a Cybercrime Convention in 2017 at the UN, it has been clear that the autocratic dream team of Russia and China would use the negotiations. Worst of all, they used the convention to legitimize their ideas of mass surveillance.

No comments:

Post a Comment