Media Briefing: Proposed UN Cybercrime Treaty Negotiations Headed in Troubling Direction, Sidestepping Human Rights Protections and Threatening Free Expression, EFF and Allies Warn

Proposals for Broad Surveillance Powers and Criminalization of Speech Put Journalists, Human Rights Defenders, and Dissidents at Risk

San Francisco—On Thursday, April 13, at 10:00 am Pacific Time (1:00 pm Eastern Time, 7 pm CEST), experts with Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and four international allies will brief reporters on the grave threat to human rights posed by ongoing UN Cybercrime Treaty negotiations that could lead to broad surveillance powers, criminalizing online speech, and enabling hacking by police agencies.

The one-hour briefing will be livestreamed from the fifth session of treaty negotiations in Vienna, where representatives from over 100 Member States will meet to discuss a negotiating document reflecting their suggestions for the treaty. The document lacks strong commitments to human rights and detailed conditions and safeguards that are needed to protect the rights of Individuals and organizations around the world.

Without that, there’s ample wiggle room for prosecutors to, for example, access personal data with no independent or judicial oversight, and use electronic surveillance to interfere with the rights to privacy and freedom of expression in ways that violate international human rights law.

The draft’s scope needs to be narrowed and include specific human rights protections. As it stands, it creates over thirty new cybercrime offenses, including half a dozen that would make it a crime to send or post legitimate content protected by international law. This goes

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