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United States News

Biden Administration To Support Controversial UN Cyber Treaty (yahoo.com) 97

The Biden administration plans to support a controversial cybercrime treaty at the United Nations this week despite concerns that it could be misused by authoritarian regimes, Bloomberg News reported Monday, citing senior government officials. From the report: The agreement would be the first legally binding UN agreement on cybersecurity and could become a global legal framework for countries to cooperate on preventing and investigating cybercriminals. However, critics fear it could be used by authoritarian states to try to pursue dissidents overseas or collect data from political opponents. Still, the officials said there are persuasive reasons to support the treaty. For instance, it would advance the criminalization of child sexual-abuse material and nonconsensual spreading of intimate images, they said.

In addition, the wider involvement of member states would make cybercrime and electronic evidence more available to the US, one official said. If all the members sign the agreement, it would update extradition treaties and provide more opportunities to apprehend cybercriminals and have them extradited, the official added. Hundreds of submissions from advocacy groups and other parties criticized US involvement in the agreement. The US plans to strictly enforce human rights and other safeguards in the treaty, the officials said, adding that the Department of Justice would closely scrutinize requests and refuse to provide any assistance that was inconsistent with the agreement.

Biden Administration To Support Controversial UN Cyber Treaty

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  • by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) on Monday November 11, 2024 @01:49PM (#64937445)
    So what happens when a signatory violates this treaty? Another nasty-worded letter from the UN?
    • I'm more than a little sure there is no such thing as a "legally binding UN treaty".

      Treaties are between countries.

      • by Sique ( 173459 )
        Wrong. Treaties are whatever the signees want them to be. Usually, a treaty has to be ratified by the respective national legislative, for them to turn into laws of the country. And then, they are just that: laws of the respective countries.

        This is also true for UN treaties. They are the law of any country where they were ratified, and they are worth as much as the local executive works them and the local judiciary enforces them..

    • by kenh ( 9056 )

      The blue helmets will fly to the capitol and wag their collective fingers at the offending leaders, after sampling the local prostitutes and illegally parking all over town...

    • what happens when a signatory violates this treaty?

      If the treaty has been duly ratified and if the signatory is a Rule of Law country, then someone can refer violations to local or supreme tribunals, for which the ratified treaty is law of the land, and which can force the executive to abide by those terms (e.g. cancels an executive decision or a newly-adopted legislation that would be contrary to the treaty).

      N.B. Adherence to Rule of Law is quantified by an index https://worldjusticeproject.or... [worldjusticeproject.org]

  • Really? (Score:5, Informative)

    by kenh ( 9056 ) on Monday November 11, 2024 @02:17PM (#64937543) Homepage Journal

    Will Biden "sign the treaty" or will he "ratify" it?

    The ratification process is "non-trivial":

    Outline of the Treaty Making Process

    • Secretary of State authorizes negotiation.
    • U.S. representatives negotiate.
    • Agree on terms, and upon authorization of Secretary of State, sign treaty.
    • President submits treaty to Senate.
    • Senate Foreign Relations Committee considers treaty and reports to Senate.
    • Senate considers and approves by 2/3 majority. President proclaims entry into force.

    Source: https://law.duke.edu/ilrt/trea... [duke.edu]

    And I doubt Biden can get that done before leaving office.

    • Suggested news article title: President Biden Advocates for UN Treaty Which is Unlikely to be Submitted to the US Senate or Pass the US Senate.

      Why even report this until the president sends the treaty to the US Senate for a ratification vote?

      These articles, especially at end of presidential term, are either
      - Signals for vote buying if from before an election
      - Manufacturing campaign issues for the next congressional and presidential elections.

      You may agree or disagree with the treaty's intent, but a preside

  • support a controversial cybercrime treaty at the United Nations this week despite concerns that it could be misused by authoritarian regimes

    Joe Biden did say he would direct his entire administration to work with Trump's team.

  • by Uldis Segliņš ( 4468089 ) on Monday November 11, 2024 @03:10PM (#64937723)
    As soon as someone explains something with "protect children against abuse" and it is not in the title, you know there is different motivation and they just use scare tactics. And since when is UN a respectful organisation, since Russias latest war? UN is a joke with a funny old moron ontop, that can't say more than "deeply concerned" and then go home thinking what a good job he did.
  • by molarmass192 ( 608071 ) on Monday November 11, 2024 @03:27PM (#64937769) Homepage Journal

    These kinds of ideas are always sold under the guise of "won't somebody please think of the children". Nobody thinks child exploitation is a good thing, it's undeniably a bad thing and should be rigorously prosecuted. However, this treaty isn't about protecting children, it's about allowing mass data gathering in the name of protecting children. This is the public release NSA PRISM v2 under the slogan "Now with protection for children!". The reality is no child predators will be targeted by this, but plenty of non-child predators will be targeted with this. Privacy and free-speech are paramount in a democratic society, It's not a stretch to read into why the deep-state wants to get this codified before a changing of the guard under the assumption that Snowden is a distant memory. The prospect of endless weaponizable out-of-context "leaks" must have deep-state loyalists salivating at the sword of Damocles they could rig up. If they want to sign a treaty to extradite child predators specifically, great, that's a good thing. Asking us to sign off to monitor all the things because there's a non-zero chance there might be CSAM or a bitcoin scam in there, right, fool me once.

"Old age and treachery will beat youth and skill every time." -- a coffee cup

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