UN passes Russian cyber crime resolution critics say will be used to justify state internet control

Final vote to adopt the resolution in the UN General Assembly will be held next month

A UN committee on Monday passed a Russian-led resolution on a global cyber-crime treaty, despite reservations that it could be used to justify shutting down civil society in repressive countries.

The resolution was sponsored by China, North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Syria, among others.

The resolution will set up an "Open Ended Working Group" to examine cyber crime. It was passed by 88 votes to 58. Thirty-four members of the committee were absent for the vote.

A final vote to adopt the resolution in the UN General Assembly will be held next month. If approved, a committee will meet in August next year to draft terms of reference to direct the writing of a treaty.

Russia claims that the new treaty will be more "inclusive" and respectful of countries' sovereignty. Critics say the move is intended to justify Russian-style central government control of internet communications.

Russia recently ordered telecoms companies to re-architect the internet within its borders to make it easier to surveill the population and, if necessary, cut the country's internet system off from the rest of the world.

The proposed treaty has been framed to serve as an alternative to the US-led Budapest Convention, which was ratified in 2001 and intended to promote international cooperation to curb cybercrime. The Convention, however, was not endorsed by Russia and China at the time.

In recentmonths, the Russian-led resolution has faced criticism from human rights groups who argue that it will only expand the Russian model of tight state control of the internet.

US and European governments believe the measure will do nothing to help tackle cybercrime anyway - much of it comes from Russia - and instead will help authoritarian governments justify tightening control of the internet within their borders.

Rather than tackling cyber crime, the UN-endorsed treaty would give governments the green light to block critical websites. It will also encourage governments to use technologies to monitor dissidents under the guise of "tackling cyber crime".

Earlier this month, Russian enacted its long-planned "sovereign internet" law, which empowers the government to create a standalone internet infrastructure that could be used to cut the country's internet off from the rest of the world, while continuing to function internally. The law also pushes ISPs to install software to enable the government to filter internet traffic.

In an open letter to the UN General Assembly, 36 civil rights groups argued that the Russian-led draft resolution is unnecessary, ambiguous, "fundamentally flawed and would restrict the use of the internet for human rights, and social and economic development".

It would also lend weight to government efforts to criminalise common online activities, such as using encrypted chat applications.

"We are not convinced that there is a need for a new international convention on cyber crime," they argue, adding: "When misused, cyber crime laws can create a chilling effect and hinder people's ability to use the internet to exercise their rights online and offline.

"As various UN Special Procedures have raised in communications with governments, cybercrime laws can result in arbitrary arrests, detention, and even death."