Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

The United States’ fair and independent courts exist to resolve serious disputes. Unfortunately, some parties abuse the civil litigation process to silence others’ speech, rather than resolve legitimate claims.

“We’ve seen vaguely worded international cybercrime laws misused to violate freedom of expression, target dissenters, and put them in danger. It’s paramount that the proposed treaty does not invite abuse and overreach by countries by obligating states to cooperate in open-ended investigations of ill-defined criminal matters” – EFF

Despite protests, Indonesia’s Parliament has received a new draft of the Criminal Code that threatens to further chill political dissent and civic participation.

Government involvement in content moderation raises serious human rights concerns in every context, and these concerns are further troubling when the involvement originates with law enforcement.

“The Commission’s proposal would compel a broad range of technology companies to scan and analyse their users’ messages, in the name of fighting crimes against children. Email, texts, social media messages, and DMs could all be subject to plain-text access and scanning.”

The bill would protect people who, for example, use fertility or period-tracking apps or are seeking information about reproductive health services.

“Including offenses based on harmful speech in the treaty, rather than focusing on core cybercrimes, will likely result in overbroad, easily abused laws that will sweep up lawful speech and pose an enormous menace to the free expression rights of people around the world. The UN committee should not make that mistake.”

A submitted amicus brief shows how Colombia’s intelligence law and unlawful surveillance practices are violating the right to privacy and other human rights.