UN backs Russia & China on internet convention on cybercrime, alarming rights advocates - Could be used to restrict online freedom
UN backs Russia on internet convention, alarming rights advocates
AFP•
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United Nations on
Friday approved a Russian-led bid that aims to create a new convention on
cybercrime, alarming rights groups and Western powers that fear a bid to
restrict online freedom.
The General Assembly approved the resolution sponsored by Russia
and backed by China, which would set up a committee of international experts in
2020.
The panel will work to set up "a comprehensive
international convention on countering the use of information and
communications technologies for criminal purposes," the resolution said.
The United States, European powers and rights groups fear that
the language is code for legitimizing crackdowns on expression, with numerous
countries defining criticism of the government as "criminal."
China heavily restricts internet searches to avoid topics
sensitive to its communist leadership, as well as news sites with critical
coverage.
A number of countries have increasingly tried to turn off the
internet, with India cutting off access in Kashmir in August after it stripped
autonomy to the Muslim-majority region and Iran taking much of the country
offline as it cracked down on protests in November.
"It is precisely our fear that (a new convention) would
allow the codification at an international and global level of these types of
controls that's driving our opposition and our concerns about this
resolution," a US official said.
Any new UN treaty that spells out internet controls would be
"inimical to the United States' interests because that doesn't tally with
the fundamental freedoms we see as necessary across the globe," he said.
Human Rights Watch called the UN resolution's list of sponsors
"a rogue's gallery of some of the earth's most repressive
governments."
"If the plan is to develop a convention that gives
countries legal cover for internet blackouts and censorship, while creating the
potential for criminalizing free speech, then it's a bad idea," said Human
Rights Watch's Louis Charbonneau.
The United States argues that the world should instead expand
its sole existing accord on cybercrime, the 2001 Budapest Convention, which
spells out international cooperation to curb copyright violations, fraud and
child pornography.
Russia has opposed the Budapest Convention, arguing that giving
investigators access to computer data across borders violates national
sovereignty.
The Budapest Convention was drafted by the Council of Europe,
but other countries have joined, including the United States and Japan.
A new UN treaty on cybercrime could render the Budapest
Convention obsolete, further alarming rights groups.
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