EFF is attending this week and next a new round of negotiations over the proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty to raise concerns that draft provisions now on the table include a long list of content-related crimes that pose serious threats to free expression, privacy, and the legitimate activities of journalists, whistleblowers, activists, and others.
In talks starting today and running through January 20 in Vienna, we will fight for users to ensure that detailed human rights are embedded in the treaty, and that proposed criminal offenses are narrow in scope, limited to core cybercrimes, and exclude content-based crimes and crimes that are considered “cyber” just because technology was used to commit them. We will also be fighting against the inclusion of overbroad and undefined concepts that could potentially authorize surveillance measures such as government hacking, as well as any provision that could undermine encryption.
EFF and Privacy International articulated these concerns in a joint submission, delivered to Member States last month, that includes detailed observations and recommendations to limit the scope of the proposed treaty, including limiting criminal conduct to only offenses in which information and communications systems are the direct objects and instruments of the crimes. You can read the full submission here.
Moreover, in a letter released today to the UN Ad Hoc Committee facilitating the negotiations, EFF and more than 74 digital and human rights organizations in more than 45 countries and regions, expressed grave concerns that the draft text released by the committee on November 7 calls for Member States to treat various kinds of speech—much o
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