[HN Gopher] US declines to join more than 70 countries in signin...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       US declines to join more than 70 countries in signing UN cybercrime
       treaty
        
       Author : pcaharrier
       Score  : 287 points
       Date   : 2025-10-30 14:22 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (therecord.media)
 (TXT) w3m dump (therecord.media)
        
       | ecshafer wrote:
       | The government is shut down, treaties need to be ratified by the
       | Senate.
        
         | teraflop wrote:
         | The executive branch is shut down. The Senate is still in
         | session.
         | 
         | (The House of Representatives is effectively shut down, but
         | only because the Speaker of the House has been unilaterally
         | putting it into recess at the beginning of every session. The
         | House Republicans all voted to grant the Speaker the power to
         | do this whenever he wants, at the beginning of their current
         | term.)
        
           | Razengan wrote:
           | I am the Senate.
        
         | dragonwriter wrote:
         | > The government is shut down, treaties need to be ratified by
         | the Senate.
         | 
         | The President isn't shut down, and only the President is needed
         | to sign a treaty; it is submitted for ratification later and
         | that, absent a deadline in the treaty, can take as long as it
         | takes.
         | 
         | Also, even if the Senate was required to _sign_ a treaty, the
         | Senate isn 't shutdown, and is in session and doing business.
        
       | Aurornis wrote:
       | > It also creates legal regimes to monitor, store and allow
       | cross-border sharing of information without specific data
       | protections. Access Now's Raman Jit Singh Chima said the
       | convention effectively justifies "cyber authoritarianism at home
       | and transnational repression across borders."
       | 
       | None of this sounds good for privacy and data protection.
       | 
       | Opting out of the treaty was probably a good choice. Opting out
       | doesn't preclude the US from cooperating with international
       | cybercrime investigations, but it does avoid more data
       | collection, surveillance, and sharing.
        
         | rprwhite wrote:
         | Err... yeah, because that's what USA based companies are known
         | for - PII protection and data privacy?!?
         | 
         | Maybe there is some more complexity to this argument, that I'm
         | missing. But, it's not one that has merit without
         | justification.
        
           | jonas21 wrote:
           | Well, yes. Compared to most countries that have signed this
           | treaty, the US has excellent protections for PII and data
           | privacy.
           | 
           | But that's beside the point. The most objectionable parts are
           | about state surveillance and the potential for human rights
           | abuses.
           | 
           | For example, here's what the EFF had to say about it:
           | 
           | https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/07/effs-concerns-about-
           | un...
        
             | twothreeone wrote:
             | I wouldn't exactly call them "excellent", but yeah I think
             | the big caveat is
             | 
             | > the US has excellent protections for PII and data privacy
             | 
             | *for _US nationals_ :)
        
               | whimsicalism wrote:
               | actually mostly for EU nationals :)
        
           | whimsicalism wrote:
           | US-based companies probably have the most sophisticated PII &
           | data privacy compliance schemes globally. Sure, that's mostly
           | due to obligations imposed on them by jurisdictions outside
           | of the US, but it is still true.
        
             | ignoramous wrote:
             | We're talking about privacy / data (ab)use for military
             | purposes. Those compliance schemes you speak of matter
             | naught.
        
               | whimsicalism wrote:
               | > We're talking about privacy / data (ab)use for military
               | purposes.
               | 
               | What? No, we're not. What gave you that impression?
        
           | Aurornis wrote:
           | Is your argument that because you don't think US companies
           | are good at PII, we need to force those companies to share
           | their PII with 70 other countries on request?
           | 
           | > Maybe there is some more complexity to this argument, that
           | I'm missing.
           | 
           | I think you're missing the entire argument. Why would it be a
           | good thing for a country to volunteer its' companies PII
           | through a treaty with foreign governments like Russia, North
           | Korea, and China?
        
         | slowmovintarget wrote:
         | Opting out was the right thing to do. This is Badthink
         | monitoring in the guise of cybersecurity.
        
       | christkv wrote:
       | No thank you and I'm loath to see the EU sign up to this with a
       | ton of authoritarian states. Things like this and the continued
       | pushing of stuff like Chat Control has convinced me the EU stands
       | to turn our countries into flawed democracies and eventually
       | authoritarian states.
        
         | perihelions wrote:
         | It's remarkable context that the Russian government authored
         | this UN treaty,
         | 
         | > _" Russia, however, Rodriguez said, has objected to the
         | convention for infringing state sovereignty by allowing other
         | nations to investigate cybercrimes in its jurisdiction. So in
         | 2017, Russia proposed negotiating a new treaty, and in 2019 the
         | UN adopted a resolution to do so, backed by Russia, Cambodia,
         | Belarus, China, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Syria and
         | Venezuela."_
         | 
         | https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/14/un_cybercrime_treaty/ (
         | _" Russia-pushed UN Cybercrime Treaty may rewrite global law.
         | It's ... not great"_)
         | 
         | > _" It was proposed by Russia in 2017 and adopted by the
         | General Assembly in December 2024 amid resistance from human
         | rights organizations"_
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_agai...
        
           | christkv wrote:
           | lol and the same politicians who call everything a Russian
           | plot to influence Europeans run and sign this. The loss of
           | shame is one of our main problems in modern politics on all
           | sides. The professional politician industrial complex has to
           | go.
        
       | perihelions wrote:
       | Previous threads:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41207987 ( _" EFF's concerns
       | about the UN Cybercrime Convention (eff.org)"_, 99 comments)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39129274 ( _" Proposed UN
       | cybercrime treaty has evolved into an expansive surveillance tool
       | (eff.org)"_, 64 comments)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41210110 ( _" New U.N.
       | Cybercrime Treaty Unanimously Approved, Could Threaten Human
       | Rights (scientificamerican.com)"_, 53 comments)
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41221403 ( _" UN Cybercrime
       | Convention to Overrule Bank Secrecy (therage.co)"_, 42 comments)
        
       | maerF0x0 wrote:
       | Why would the US give away it's power? I do not see anything to
       | gain here. At least 2 of the big players are duplicitous bad
       | actors (ie take more than they give) ... If they want prove
       | otherwise then let Tencent teams compete in public CTFs again and
       | disclose 0days.
        
         | delfinom wrote:
         | What power? The US gave up power by not signing. The treaty is
         | standardizing the process for sharing cybercrime evidence and
         | prosecuting individuals. It has signatories pledging to align
         | their laws and create new ones to make the same cybercrime
         | illegal.
         | 
         | This isn't giving any country any sole power over cybercrime
         | prosecution decisions.
        
           | strictnein wrote:
           | Signing on to bad treaties is bad. Treaties can both restrict
           | what you can do and compel you to do things that you don't
           | want to.
           | 
           | For example: "Compelled Technical Assistance: The draft
           | requires countries to adopt laws enabling authorities to
           | compel anyone with knowledge of a particular computer system
           | to provide *necessary information* to facilitate access."
           | 
           | The US would have to have laws that would force you to
           | provide login information to systems if the government wanted
           | access to it. This would run contrary to the 5th amendment.
           | 
           | https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/07/effs-concerns-about-
           | un...
        
             | bigbuppo wrote:
             | And what's that thing about treaties and the Constitution?
        
               | polski-g wrote:
               | SC has already ruled that when treaties and the
               | constitution conflict, the latter is supreme.
        
               | bigbuppo wrote:
               | Has SCOTUS ever later revisited and reversed a previous
               | decision?
        
       | shenberg wrote:
       | When countries like North Korea, which depends on cybercrime to
       | fund itself, are signatories, you have to wonder whether this
       | agreement means what its title says.
        
         | y-curious wrote:
         | The old "think of the children/fight terrorism/support our
         | troops/be a good person" style of naming propositions to
         | destroy data privacy.
        
           | slowmovintarget wrote:
           | Not just data privacy, this is intended to destroy free
           | speech.
        
         | Atlas667 wrote:
         | They have also had the longest on going embargo on earth right
         | after they were nearly wiped out by a genocidal war on behalf
         | of the US.
         | 
         | I don't doubt their history explains the shape of their
         | economy.
         | 
         | This may seem like I am defending North Korea, but in reality I
         | am putting in perspective who/why they are. Facts which nearly
         | amount propaganda to western nations.
        
           | bloppe wrote:
           | I don't think it's right to blame ordinary North Koreans for
           | the state of their country like that. Clearly it has more to
           | do with the paranoid authoritarianism of 1 guy, rather than
           | the collective war trauma of the people. Just look at South
           | Korea, the other party of that "genocidal war". They moved on
           | a long time ago, because their national politics allowed them
           | to.
        
       | landl0rd wrote:
       | China, north korea, and russia, all prolific cybercriminal
       | nations with significant state backing of the same, are
       | signatories. This means it's at best meaningless and at worst
       | surrenders power to a regime with partial control by objectively
       | bad actors. Staying out of this was the right move.
       | 
       | Plus it has too many implications for surveillance and security;
       | poor idea in any case.
        
         | ethagknight wrote:
         | I was hoping to see a comment like this. These sorts of "global
         | collaborations" seem to always end with the US carry all the
         | water, and the goal from the other countries perspective is to
         | throttle the US. Like the Paris Accords.
        
           | BoredPositron wrote:
           | Say what you want about this treaty but China is running
           | circles around you regarding Paris.
        
             | HFguy wrote:
             | What point are you trying to make? I'm honestly not sure.
             | Is it that China is polluting a lot? Or a little? That they
             | are making environmental progress? Or none?
        
               | BoredPositron wrote:
               | They they are exceeding their initial commitment. Talking
               | about pollution in your tone is also a bit rich coming
               | from the biggest net polluter in all of history.
        
               | nomel wrote:
               | What percent difference in reduction do you see if they
               | didn't sign the treaty?
        
               | BoredPositron wrote:
               | Doesn't matter they committed to a target and exceed it.
               | We see two countries with stagnation (changes below 1%)
               | and regressions... one is the us.
        
           | estearum wrote:
           | What about non-proliferation treaties which have prevented
           | the vast majority of countries from bankrupting themselves in
           | an existential sprint to nuclear weapons?
        
           | izacus wrote:
           | Do you have even a slightest proof for your claim?
        
             | nonethewiser wrote:
             | Proof for his claim that this is how it seems to him? Isn't
             | the proof self evident - he said it seems that way.
             | Obviously this doesn't immediately make it true but asking
             | for "proof" mischaracterizes the nature of his statement.
        
             | twothreeone wrote:
             | If you're trying to convince someone (other countries the
             | US) the burden of proof is on you.
        
               | izacus wrote:
               | Stop normalizing lies.
        
             | wagwang wrote:
             | > Is food a human right
             | 
             | https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3951462?ln=en
             | 
             | > Amount of food sent
             | 
             | https://www.gao.gov/international-food-assistance
        
               | sbohacek wrote:
               | This is an example of US not carrying "all the water."
               | The second link shows that the EU+UK (countries +
               | institutions) sent more food aid than the US. The UK has
               | roughly 1/5 the population of the US and sent more than
               | 1/5 as much as the US. Or, the UK has roughly 1/8 the GDP
               | of the US and sent far more than 1/8 as much as the US.
               | 
               | Also, the data is 2014-2018 when US food aid was managed
               | by USAID. What is the US percentage now that USAID has
               | been eliminated?
        
               | wagwang wrote:
               | The us share of world gdp was between 22-27% and it was
               | contributing 36%.
               | 
               | Secondly, this is only external aid, internally the US
               | far outspend most countries with 100B towards SNAP. Most
               | euro nations don't even have food stamp like programs.
        
           | JoshTriplett wrote:
           | > and the goal from the other countries perspective is to
           | throttle the US. Like the Paris Accords.
           | 
           | Which is not inherently a bad thing: https://en.wikipedia.org
           | /wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_di...
        
             | etiennebausson wrote:
             | Interesting dataset.
             | 
             | It would be a lot fairer to display tons of CO2 per
             | inhabitant I think.
             | 
             | And that's before taking into account imported CO2.
        
               | brooke2k wrote:
               | Climate change isn't driven by per-inhabitant CO2
               | emissions. It's driven by total CO2 emissions, of which
               | the US outputs 12% per year.
        
               | tock wrote:
               | Climate change isn't driven by human defined borders
               | either. It's driven by total CO2 emissions. If a per-
               | capita rate is non sensical then border based emissions
               | are even more non sensical. Greenland only emits 0.001%
               | of the total. Greenland is 12000x a better country than
               | the US wow. This is exactly why per-capita is used.
        
               | im3w1l wrote:
               | Yeah and this is clearest when you consider federations.
               | Imagine if you count the US as 50 separate countries,
               | suddenly they are much more climate friendly! That's of
               | course absurd.
        
               | mulmen wrote:
               | Climate change isn't driven by borders but energy policy
               | is defined within them.
        
               | tock wrote:
               | And no policy is gonna willingly reduce energy
               | consumption which is directly co-related with QOL when
               | other countries have much higher per-capita consumption.
               | Politically humans need fairness.
        
               | mulmen wrote:
               | We don't need to reduce energy consumption. We need to
               | reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
        
               | tock wrote:
               | We know. There are many reasons why countries choose more
               | polluting sources of energy. Part of which is costs. The
               | world runs on incentives. Maybe rich countries like the
               | US can subsidize clean energy for poorer countries like
               | India. Because consumption is definitely not going to
               | come down.
        
               | immibis wrote:
               | Solar energy is currently the cheapest form of energy,
               | cheaper than coal, cheaper than natural gas. You know the
               | conspiracy theories about how the oil companies are
               | keeping perpetual motion machines hidden? Solar panels
               | are literally that. With the caveat that they only work
               | in sunlight. So they're not great when you need energy at
               | night. But even if you triple your costs to account for
               | only working 8 hours a day, they're cheaper than anything
               | else.
        
               | reliabilityguy wrote:
               | > Solar energy is currently the cheapest form of energy,
               | cheaper than coal, cheaper than natural gas.
               | 
               | Cheaper before the incentives?
        
               | mulmen wrote:
               | Yes. Even if you count the fossil fuel subsidies.
        
               | hansvm wrote:
               | But the reason emissions happen is for per-inhabitant
               | benefits. It's a very reasonable idea [0] to set a per-
               | inhabitant goal and criticize countries exceeding that
               | threshold (which the US would still fail at, but I'm
               | arguing against the metric itself rather than US faults).
               | 
               | Take your position to something of an extreme -- the
               | Vatican could open up 200 coal power plants for its holy
               | Bitcoin operations and still be sufficiently less
               | impactful to CO2 than the US that nobody would target
               | them during climate talks. Rephrased from the other
               | direction, each US citizen would blow their CO2 budget by
               | buying a shirt per decade to get down to the Vatican's
               | levels.
               | 
               | That's a common mental failure mode, analogous to the
               | sorites paradox. Countries are made up of many small
               | actors and decisions, and pretending otherwise is
               | unlikely to help you achieve your goals.
               | 
               | [0] Mostly -- transitive effects like one country
               | generating all the goods another country uses are harder
               | to account for. Assuming we could measure perfectly
               | though...
        
               | jandrewrogers wrote:
               | 12% is quite low considering that the US is responsible
               | for >20% of global industrial output.
        
               | gruez wrote:
               | Not really, by that metric Europe still comes out ahead.
               | 
               | https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-intensity
        
               | jandrewrogers wrote:
               | Of course, Europe has relatively little carbon intensive
               | industry. The US is the world's largest producer of oil,
               | beef, and other things with an intrinsically high carbon
               | footprint. The carbon intensity of industry is a
               | byproduct of geography and geology.
               | 
               | Europe has a relatively high carbon footprint per unit of
               | output for things like animal husbandry compared to the
               | US, they just don't do enough of it for it to add up.
        
               | gruez wrote:
               | >Of course, Europe has relatively little carbon intensive
               | industry. The US is the world's largest producer of oil,
               | beef, and other things with an intrinsically high carbon
               | footprint. The carbon intensity of industry is a
               | byproduct of geography and geology.
               | 
               | This also works in reverse, eg. US importing goods from
               | china and therefore not being on the hook for emissions
               | generated by those goods. ourworldindata has another page
               | that compares the difference between consumption based
               | emissions and territorial emissions[1]. Looking at that
               | page, consumption based emissions are 11% higher for the
               | US vs 27% for the EU. That makes the US look better, but
               | it's not enough to cancel out the fact that the US is 63%
               | more carbon intensive than the EU.
               | 
               | [1] https://ourworldindata.org/consumption-based-co2
        
               | nonethewiser wrote:
               | You're kinda contradicting yourself. You're right that
               | it's about absolute numbers. But then you use a
               | percentage.
               | 
               | perhaps 12% for 5% of the global population is too high.
               | But you dont want to relate it to population. Relating to
               | number of countries is rather non-sensical. Some are big
               | (by productivity, area, population, etc.), some are tiny.
        
               | nosianu wrote:
               | How is that fair when a lot of industrial production was
               | shifted to one region of the globe specifically? It would
               | be impossible without a lot of guessing and estimations,
               | producing questionable data, but you would have to
               | include CO2 attributable to exports and imports.
               | 
               | Which is just too hard, and too open to change
               | assumptions to fit a desired result.
               | 
               | Because in reality, much of the globe's economy is
               | waaayyyyy too interconnected, and the arrows don't just
               | point one way. Feedback loops without end.
               | 
               | That whole "this/that country..." just does not work,
               | except to fill comment sections. The systems are global.
        
               | gruez wrote:
               | >It would be impossible without a lot of guessing and
               | estimations, producing questionable data, but you would
               | have to include CO2 attributable to exports and imports.
               | 
               | >Which is just too hard, and too open to change
               | assumptions to fit a desired result.
               | 
               | See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45762344
               | 
               | No, it's pretty straightforward. Count where a given good
               | is consumed rather then where it's produced. It has to be
               | estimated, but that's also the case for territorial
               | emissions or other economic figures like GDP, but we
               | don't throw our hands up and say "well it's too hard and
               | too prone to fudging so we might as well not bother".
               | 
               | >Because in reality, much of the globe's economy is
               | waaayyyyy too interconnected, and the arrows don't just
               | point one way. Feedback loops without end.
               | 
               | What "feedback loops" are you talking about?
               | 
               | >That whole "this/that country..." just does not work,
               | except to fill comment sections. The systems are global.
               | 
               | Ok but surely you must recognize that the US, where the
               | average person drives a pickup/SUV to work is emitting
               | more carbon than something like India where the average
               | person gets around by walking or using motorbikes? That's
               | the concept that conversations like "US emits more carbon
               | per capita" are trying to capture. "The systems are
               | global" sounds like an excuse to continue driving a F-150
               | to work because of some spurious arguments about how hard
               | it's do to do carbon accounting 100% accurately.
        
               | gruez wrote:
               | >And that's before taking into account imported CO2.
               | 
               | It doesn't really make much of a difference. For US
               | specifically there's about a 10% difference.
               | 
               | https://ourworldindata.org/consumption-based-co2
        
               | mulmen wrote:
               | I believe the concept you are looking for is scope 3
               | emissions.
        
             | jppope wrote:
             | Super weird that they don't factor in productivity at all.
             | Don't take me the wrong way I hate the fact that the United
             | States thinks the only way to do anything is to burn fossil
             | fuels, but that doesn't change the fact that our output per
             | capita has got to be 10x the countries we are being
             | compared against in this article.
        
               | exitb wrote:
               | In what sense? Does an American bolt factory produce 10x
               | as much bots per worker, or is the American bolt just 10x
               | more expensive?
        
               | dollylambda wrote:
               | I think in the sense that if you look at the ratio of say
               | GDP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_G
               | DP_(nomi...) to CO2 emission, you could get _a_ metric of
               | efficiency. The product produced vs the emissions
               | produced.
        
               | jobigoud wrote:
               | GDP doesn't differentiate between good and bad things and
               | for climate change it would be border line circular
               | because natural disasters like floods and hurricanes are
               | "good" for the GDP (reconstruction effort is a net
               | positive, destruction itself is not subtracted).
        
               | twothreeone wrote:
               | That perspective also helps to understand the position
               | that any call for radical climate action must be a
               | weaponization of competing economies to weaken the leader
               | of the pack. So it is very bad framing. Do the work
               | cheaper, better, and at scale. By doing it more
               | efficiently you win. Oh, and of course you'll be more
               | innovative too.
        
               | gruez wrote:
               | There's a chart that does this directly:
               | https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-intensity
        
               | user_7832 wrote:
               | In some cases, I'd argue it might ironically be a _worse_
               | metric. Case in point, a large AI adjacent firm like
               | NVIDIA - or even OpenAI - that is both "creating gdp",
               | but also _worsening_ stuff. I'd say a farmer farming in a
               | sustainable way might have a near 0 gdp compared to Sama,
               | but environmentally is much better.
        
               | dollylambda wrote:
               | Agree that not all gdp is equal or beneficial. However, I
               | think most people would be remiss to the idea of giving
               | up on science and technology and a return to the
               | agricultural era.
        
               | user_7832 wrote:
               | Agree, to clarify, I'm specifically skeptical of the US
               | GDP as much of it seems of a very bubble-like and
               | speculative nature. Tesla (stock) pre NVIDIA was probably
               | the poster boy for the longest of times.
        
             | nonethewiser wrote:
             | But think about it from the perspective of a US that wants
             | to reduce carbon emissions. Why not simply throttle carbon
             | emissions directly?
        
               | burningChrome wrote:
               | The US has been?
               | 
               | - U.S. greenhouse gas emissions peaked around 2007, then
               | declined by roughly 18% from that peak.
               | 
               | - 1990-2022: Emissions fell about 3% compared to 1990
               | levels, despite population and GDP growth.
               | 
               | - 2005 Benchmark: Emissions in 2022 were 17% below 2005
               | levels, largely due to cleaner electricity generation and
               | efficiency improvements.
               | 
               | - Transportation: Consistently the largest source,
               | accounting for ~30-35% of CO2 emissions.
               | 
               | - Electric Power: Significant reductions--down 41% since
               | 2005--due to coal-to-natural-gas shift and renewables
               | growth.
               | 
               | - 2024: Energy-related CO2 emissions totaled 4,772
               | million metric tons, down from 4,940 MMt in 2022.
               | 
               | - 2022: Total U.S. GHG emissions were 6,343 million
               | metric tons CO2e, or 5,489 MMt after land-sector
               | sequestration
        
             | tgma wrote:
             | A good thing from whose perspective? From the perspective
             | of US it would always be a bad thing. Why would you ever
             | want to concede something and limit yourself without
             | proportional concessions.
        
               | deadbabe wrote:
               | To grow "soft power". Especially by agreeing to things
               | you probably would have done anyway.
        
           | lovich wrote:
           | You know what the fun fact that everyone I hear complain
           | about the US spending more than is fair on international
           | projects ignores or appears ignorant of?
           | 
           | When you're the one carrying the water, you get to decide
           | where the water goes.
           | 
           | I actually prefer regimes like NATO where everyone is happy
           | to leave the US in charge and doesn't arm themselves. For all
           | the projection of "strength" the current admin gives off,
           | they are on their way towards reigning over a kingdom formed
           | from the ashes of the republic's empire
        
             | whimsicalism wrote:
             | I prefer multilateralism, but I do think there are
             | challenges when every country that isn't the biggest
             | smashes the 'defect' button as many times as they can.
        
             | _3u10 wrote:
             | Most US foreign aid is delivered as bombs, and/or directly
             | funding the terrorists.
             | 
             | And if not directly funding the terrorists, creating a
             | situation so stupid that it will lead to a fresh batch for
             | next years war.
             | 
             | Neither the people paying for it, nor the people receiving
             | it want it to be done that way.
        
               | CaptWillard wrote:
               | And don't forget the tertiary effects as we displace
               | millions with those bombs, only to take in a large number
               | of "asylum seekers" from the countries we "aided".
               | 
               | IMO this is all by design, and there are a non-zero
               | number of NGO operatives on this very site who are
               | frustrated that anything is impeding that plan.
        
             | rpmisms wrote:
             | OK so can everyone else please pay?
        
           | sschueller wrote:
           | Like throttling the US from committing war crimes?
        
           | DevKoala wrote:
           | > I was hoping to see a comment like this. These sorts of
           | "global collaborations" seem to always end with the US carry
           | all the water, and the goal from the other countries
           | perspective is to throttle the US. Like the Paris Accords.
           | 
           | I agree 100%.
           | 
           | I don't see the benefits here.
        
           | brazukadev wrote:
           | Don't worry, China is willingly replacing the US in these
           | global collaborations.
        
           | brabel wrote:
           | Poor US always being bullied by everyone else. What kind of
           | world have you been living in where the reality is not the
           | exact opposite??
        
             | colechristensen wrote:
             | Eh, there are a bunch of these kinds of treaties the US
             | won't sign because for most of the signatories they're
             | inconsequential but they're a huge lever for other
             | countries to take sovereignty from the US.
        
         | password54321 wrote:
         | Screw game theory, I have the bigger stick. This is how
         | everyone goes "defect" and you enter an arms race.
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma
         | 
         | Never mind, we already crossed that line:
         | https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzq2p0yk4o
        
           | dvt wrote:
           | > Never mind, we already crossed that line:
           | https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzq2p0yk4o
           | 
           | This was a very proportional response to Putin[1] the other
           | day, so it's still technically game theory.
           | 
           | [1] https://www.reuters.com/world/china/putin-says-russia-
           | tested...
        
           | complianceowl wrote:
           | Almost no rebuttals on the internet are intellectually honest
           | these days. Take the same exact action by a President of the
           | alternative party, and it's considered "decisive", "shows our
           | enemies we mean business". But since it's not coming from
           | your political party, it's "oh no, what is this guy doing.
           | He's going to get us all unalived."
        
         | FinnKuhn wrote:
         | The Wikipedia article having a whole section about human right
         | objections also says a lot about this treaty.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_agai...
        
           | AlexandrB wrote:
           | > For example, the convention requires states to have laws
           | that compel internet services to collect certain data, and
           | does not require that requests for such data be transparent.
           | There are limited cases when member states may deny a request
           | for data, although there is a provision to do so if a state
           | believes a request is due to "sex, race, language, religion,
           | nationality, ethnic origin, or political opinions". The
           | latter statement was weakened during negotiations, and
           | challenged by Iran and Russia until the end of negotiations.
           | 
           | Ok, so it's basically a "five eyes" style agreement for
           | sharing intel on citizens. Why would anyone want their
           | government to support this?
        
             | thaumasiotes wrote:
             | > Ok, so it's basically a "five eyes" style agreement for
             | sharing intel on citizens. Why would anyone want their
             | government to support this?
             | 
             | While I agree that it's not a good idea, I can answer that
             | last question:
             | 
             | The idea would be that when an American enforcement body,
             | presumably the FBI, determines that a bunch of cash or
             | whatever was stolen by Russian hackers, the treaty compels
             | the Russian government to keep records of the hackers'
             | activity, and it "creates frameworks for collaboration,
             | including mutual legal assistance and extradition". So
             | instead of saying "hey, you stole all our money" and
             | getting the response "wow, it must suck to be you", we
             | could make them give the money back and extradite the
             | criminals.
        
               | braebo wrote:
               | Kind of breaks down when the criminals are running the
               | government..
        
               | testdelacc1 wrote:
               | Oh yes indeed, Russia will definitely keep up their end
               | of the deal. They wouldn't piss on a treaty that they had
               | signed for no reason.
               | 
               | Like, remember that time where they signed a treaty in
               | 1994 that committed them to respecting and protecting
               | Ukraine's borders and then steadfastly stuck to it till
               | present day?
               | 
               | You've convinced me. Entering this agreement with Russia,
               | North Korea and China is a great idea.
        
               | vkou wrote:
               | Believe it or not, Russia, like most countries, mostly
               | adheres to most of the treaties it signs.
               | 
               | That thrust would also land better if the US weren't ran
               | entirely by an autocrat whose adherence to the terms of
               | its treaties is, ah, capricious at best. But even before
               | him, it's treaty adherence (like that of _all_ countries)
               | was also variable.
        
               | nickff wrote:
               | Even Trump "mostly adheres to most of the treaties" the
               | USA has signed. The USA has signed a lot of treaties, and
               | violating most of them would take a concerted effort, and
               | quite a lot of time.
        
               | vkou wrote:
               | Yes, he does. The sad and stupid and novel thing is how
               | fucking capricious he is about that adherence, and how
               | congress has fully kowtowed to him and his minions.
        
             | SllX wrote:
             | Solid question. Related, but here is a list of governments
             | that did support this: https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDe
             | tails.aspx?src=TREATY&mt...
        
             | vkou wrote:
             | > Why would anyone want their government to support this?
             | 
             | Clearly not enough people oppose it, because five eyes has
             | been a thing for decades, and isn't going anywhere.
        
         | olalonde wrote:
         | Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If they hadn't signed
         | the treaty, people here would be saying it's proof those
         | countries support cybercriminals.
        
         | dlcarrier wrote:
         | Aren't treaties with the US meaningless by default, unless
         | ratified by 3/4th of Congress?
        
           | dragonwriter wrote:
           | No. Like many countries, the US requires legislative
           | ratification of treaties, but by 2/3 of the Senate, not 3/4
           | of the Congress. The US has the same obligations as any non-
           | ratifying signatory with regard to treaties it has signed but
           | not ratified.
        
           | technothrasher wrote:
           | Two-thirds of the Senate, I believe, not three-quarters of
           | Congress.
        
           | pelorat wrote:
           | Contrast this to the EU where all treaties are automatically
           | law across all members.
        
             | alphager wrote:
             | That's not how the EU works. As an example take the
             | Mercosur treaty: it has 4 parts. The first post is straight
             | up trade rules, an area that the Eau member states
             | delegated to the EU. This part was directly valid once
             | signed.
             | 
             | The other three parts all concern areas not delegated to
             | the EU. To become law, all three parts have to be approved
             | by the EU parliament and the EU council (which consists of
             | the heads of the executives of the member states) and the
             | local parliaments of the member states. Depending on local
             | law, even regional parliaments have to approve it (Belgium
             | is such a state). The final implementation of Mercosur is
             | not expected before 2028.
        
         | MangoToupe wrote:
         | Surely signing it would signal willingness to get along? What
         | would be the downside?
         | 
         | > surrenders power to a regime with partial control by
         | objectively bad actors
         | 
         | ...do you think we are a regime with good actors? Why? What
         | signals of morality or competency do you look for?
        
         | dumbledoren wrote:
         | Right. Its not like recent statistics showed that the US was
         | the place where most of the cyberattacks originate. And its not
         | like both the US and UK are openly saying that they are
         | maximizing cyberwarfare against everyone as if it was something
         | to be proud of. The country that is facilitating a livestreamed
         | genocide in Gaza, is the 'good guys' to be trusted in
         | cyberwarfare, for 'some' reason.
         | 
         | But, then again, in the Angloamerican culture, its always
         | 'others' who are evil. Never itself.
        
           | SllX wrote:
           | Out of curiosity, can you give me an example of a presently
           | extant culture that does view itself as evil?
        
             | brabel wrote:
             | The UK maybe?? The always had a little self loathing
             | tendencies and since they decided their past Empire was
             | actually quite evil, that seems to have become worse.
        
               | SllX wrote:
               | They're the "Anglo" in "Angloamerican culture" that the
               | parent is talking about.
        
           | louthy wrote:
           | > Right. It's not like recent statistics showed that the US
           | was the place where most of the cyberattacks originate.
           | 
           | Link?
           | 
           | > And it's not like both the US and UK are openly saying that
           | they are maximizing cyberwarfare against everyone as if it
           | was something to be proud of.
           | 
           | Link?
           | 
           | > The country that is facilitating a livestreamed genocide in
           | Gaza
           | 
           | Which country is that? And where's the livestream streaming?
        
           | p337 wrote:
           | Wait, what data are you seeing where most cyber attacks are
           | originating from the US? I work in security at a place with
           | some of the best threat intelligence globally, and there are
           | indeed attacks from the US, even the government, but the idea
           | that MOST cyberattacks originate from the US would be
           | completely shocking to me. Is there some qualifier you're not
           | including or maybe you misremembered "most targeted" as
           | originated?
           | 
           | I'm not really trying to get into the political part of it
           | fwiw.
        
             | theatomheart wrote:
             | Dont give it another second of thought. Parent poster's
             | actual name is Dumbledope. Safe to ignore and move on.
        
         | andreygrehov wrote:
         | According to World Cybercrime Index, Russia, Ukraine, China and
         | the US are in top 4. North Korea is #7. Just to add some
         | perspective to it.
        
           | coliveira wrote:
           | Three of these countries are technology leaders, so that
           | makes sense. Then we have Ukraine.
        
             | koakuma-chan wrote:
             | Russia is number 1, Ukraine is number 2. This is my
             | proudest moment as a Ukranian.
        
         | andyvesel wrote:
         | That's right. If this is happening in the wrong nation - it's
         | totalitarism and evil. If this happens in the correct nations,
         | which are on the bright side - then it's democracy.
        
           | meowface wrote:
           | This but non-ironically.
           | 
           | (Unfortunately the current United States administration makes
           | the nation much closer to one of the Bad Nations, though, so
           | it's kind of moot anyway.)
        
             | pphysch wrote:
             | It's also crucially important that the person deciding
             | "right" and "wrong" here is an Atlantic Council fellow,
             | otherwise that would also be Bad.
        
         | rpdillon wrote:
         | Yeah, the article is quite good at summarizing some of these
         | issues.
         | 
         | > The convention has been heavily criticized by the tech
         | industry, which has warned that it criminalizes cybersecurity
         | research and exposes companies to legally thorny data requests.
         | 
         | > Human rights groups warned on Friday that it effectively
         | forces member states to create a broad electronic surveillance
         | dragnet that would include crimes that have nothing to do with
         | technology.
         | 
         | > Many expressed concern that the convention will be abused by
         | dictatorships and rogue governments who will deploy it against
         | critics or protesters -- even those outside of a regime's
         | jurisdiction.
         | 
         | > It also creates legal regimes to monitor, store and allow
         | cross-border sharing of information without specific data
         | protections. Access Now's Raman Jit Singh Chima said the
         | convention effectively justifies "cyber authoritarianism at
         | home and transnational repression across borders."
         | 
         | > Any countries ratifying the treaty, he added, risks "actively
         | validating cyber authoritarianism and facilitating the global
         | erosion of digital freedoms, choosing procedural consensus over
         | substantive human rights protection."
        
       | bethekidyouwant wrote:
       | The UN should stick to environmental treaties
        
       | some_random wrote:
       | Wow so the hosts and beneficiaries of cybercrime wrote a treaty
       | on it (with a ton of additional surveillance mandates included,
       | of course) and the US didn't sign on. How disappointing.
        
       | pksebben wrote:
       | text of the treaty:
       | https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/cybercrime/convention/text/co...
       | 
       | I wouldn't get excited about the US "not signing". With the
       | government shutdown, they might just be waiting for the document
       | to be in New York before they bother. Hanoi is far.
       | 
       | 64ss1: This Convention shall be open to all States for signature
       | in Hanoi in 2025 and thereafter at United Nations Headquarters in
       | New York until 31 December 2026.
       | 
       | Article 37 is spooky. Expands extradition to where there might
       | not be preexisting extradition treaties.
       | 
       | Fuck article 11. It's the EU's "any program for committing
       | cybercrime is a crime" law, and makes programmers culpable.
       | IANAL, but it actually looks like it criminalizes the entire
       | software supply chain. Sure, there's a clause in there that looks
       | like it's supposed to protect security research (11s2) but this
       | is the thinnest of loincloths.
       | 
       | It also seems to apply to "crime where there was a computer
       | somewhere around". As for what constitutes "crime":
       | 
       | Article 2:(h) "Serious crime" shall mean conduct constituting an
       | offence punishable by a maximum deprivation of liberty of at
       | least four years or a more serious penalty;
       | 
       | ...that seems to mean that if publishing information against the
       | state regime is punishable by 4+ years and you used a computer to
       | do it, there is now a basis for seizing your data and extraditing
       | you.
       | 
       | I'm not even going to get into the implications this has for
       | damaging privacy in general. This is some dark ass shit.
        
         | thw_9a83c wrote:
         | Article 29: Real-time collection of traffic data
         | - (ii) To cooperate and assist the competent authorities in the
         | collection or          recording of; traffic data, in real
         | time, associated with specified          communications in its
         | territory transmitted by means of an information and
         | communications technology system.
         | 
         | Seriously? Will the authorities of state X simply ask the
         | authorities of state Y to collect/intercept data, and will the
         | authorities of state Y be required to cooperate even without a
         | legal basis in their local legislation? Because this treaty
         | become sufficient legislation?
         | 
         | And more so:                  3. Each State Party shall adopt
         | such legislative and other measures as may be
         | necessary to oblige a service provider to keep confidential the
         | fact of           the execution of any power provided for in
         | this article and any           information relating to it.
         | 
         | I cannot imagine anyone with a functioning brain signing this
         | at the UN level.
        
         | mystraline wrote:
         | Upon a reading, a "cybercrime" can be as simple as saying 'Kim
         | Jong Un is a fat dumbass' on social media.
         | 
         | And since it was said on a computer, combined with insulting
         | 'His Glorious Leader (spit) ' is a death penalty, thats a
         | extraditing cybercrime.
         | 
         | Sure it could be argued thats not a real example. But given
         | OFCOM's recent stunts of sending british compliance letters to
         | US firms with no british presence, I'd rather not have other
         | countries manufacturing shit laws and exporting to us as a
         | "treaty".
        
       | listeria wrote:
       | full list of signatories:
       | https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mt...
        
         | jacknews wrote:
         | Thanks, this should be added to the OP
        
           | AaronFriel wrote:
           | What's the difference between this and the first link you
           | shared?
        
             | jacknews wrote:
             | That seemed to an EU thing
             | 
             | But I note the treaties.un.org link is signatories as of
             | late 2024.
             | 
             | Why are they not publishing the current signatories? This
             | is absolutely not something that should be murky.
        
               | listeria wrote:
               | you can see at the top of the page it says:
               | STATUS AS AT : 30-10-2025 09:16:00 EDT
               | 
               | and the date of the signature says 25 Oct 2025.
        
       | jacknews wrote:
       | When Cambodia is a signatory, you know this is just whitewash, or
       | even 'protective intelligence' ie using the shared international
       | intelligence to protect the scams and evade enforcement. Keep
       | your enemies close.
        
       | pembrook wrote:
       | > _The U.K. and European Union joined China, Russia, Brazil,
       | Nigeria and dozens of other nations in signing the
       | convention...Human rights groups warned on Friday that it
       | effectively forces member states to create a broad electronic
       | surveillance dragnet that would include crimes that have nothing
       | to do with technology._
       | 
       | Countries like Nigeria, Morocco, North Korea and Russia signing a
       | "cybercrime" treaty is just hilarious to me.
       | 
       | I don't believe for a second that these countries want to crack
       | down on cybercrime, considering their citizens are the main
       | perpetrators and beneficiaries of it, and they've taken zero
       | actions to prevent it before today. Lagos is essentially the
       | Silicon Valley of internet fraud, and it happens with permission
       | from the highest levels of their government.
       | 
       | This obviously is just an excuse to create a global dragnet for
       | governments looking to crack down on dissent.
        
       | elAhmo wrote:
       | UN should move its HQ outside of US. It is obvious they have
       | become a bad host.
        
         | ARandomerDude wrote:
         | Now that's an idea I think a lot of people can get behind. From
         | the left, the US is a bad host. From the right, get those
         | globalists out of my country. Everybody wins.
        
         | ang_cire wrote:
         | I mean, that's true, but not because they won't sign onto a
         | global dragnet treaty with Russia and China.
         | 
         | China especially actively fabricates crimes for Chinese
         | dissidents living outside its borders, and this is a perfect
         | vehicle to allow them to track and monitor those people with
         | ease.
        
       | nwellnhof wrote:
       | > cybercrime -- which the U.N. estimates costs $10.5 trillion
       | around the world annually.
       | 
       | That's almost 10% of global GDP. Who comes up with these numbers?
        
         | orbifold wrote:
         | It will all make sense once you realize who works at the UN,
         | basically nepo babies of all colors and variety, including
         | second cousins of Saudi royalty etc.
        
           | tdb7893 wrote:
           | One of my family members was a research director at the UN
           | and came from a middle class American family. It has its
           | problems (he certainly has his share of complaints) but the
           | idea that they are all nepo babies is incorrect and they do
           | have serious researchers. Also, are we sure that the $10.5
           | trillion is a UN generated number? Other people in the
           | comments seem to think it was made up by some other
           | organization.
        
         | varenc wrote:
         | It might be including the cost of the entire cybersecurity
         | business sector? Salaries of security engineers, security
         | vendors, etc. Not just fallout from hacks.
         | 
         | edit: cybersecurity ventures seems to be the real source for
         | the 10.5T number: https://cybersecurityventures.com/cybercrime-
         | damage-costs-10...
         | 
         | Apparently their methodology is just assume $3T cybercrime cost
         | in 2015, then compound it by 15% annual.
        
       | sixhobbits wrote:
       | Couple clicks to get to the list so here it is. Not countries I
       | usually associate with caring about privacy.
       | 
       | Algeria,Angola,Australia,Austria,Azerbaijan,Belarus,Belgium,Brazi
       | l,Brunei Darussalam,Burkina Faso,Cambodia,Chile,China,Costa
       | Rica,Cote d'Ivoire,Cuba,Czech Republic,Democratic People's
       | Republic of Korea,Democratic Republic of the
       | Congo,Djibouti,Dominican Republic,Ecuador,Egypt,European
       | Union,France,Ghana,Greece,Guinea-Bissau,Iran (Islamic Republic of
       | ),Ireland,Jamaica,Mozambique,Namibia,Nauru,Nicaragua,Nigeria,Pala
       | u,Papua New Guinea,Peru,Philippines,Poland,Portugal,Qatar,Russian
       | Federation,Rwanda,Saudi Arabia,Slovakia,Slovenia,South
       | Africa,Spain,Sri Lanka,State of
       | Palestine,Sweden,Thailand,Togo,Turkiye,Uganda,United Kingdom of
       | Great Britain and Northern Ireland,United Republic of
       | Tanzania,Uruguay,Uzbekistan,Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic
       | of),Viet Nam,Zimbabwe
        
         | etiennebausson wrote:
         | I am curious about which countries do you associate with
         | privacy.
        
           | JumpCrisscross wrote:
           | > _curious about which countries do you associate with
           | privacy_
           | 
           | Estonia, Iceland, Switzerland, the Nordic countries and
           | America.
        
             | malvim wrote:
             | America? The one with all the spying, NSA, Patriot Act,
             | this America?
        
               | JumpCrisscross wrote:
               | > _America? The one with all the spying, NSA, Patriot
               | Act, this America?_
               | 
               | Yes. We do all of that. But so does practically everyone
               | else. The difference is our federal structure and--until
               | recently--independent courts provided a bit more
               | oversight than other countries' citizens had access to.
               | And we've had--until recently--respect for privacy held
               | deeply enough by enough people that it turns into a stink
               | at the federal level in at least some respect.
               | 
               | Most countries have national logging requirements,
               | disclosure requirements and domestic police with the
               | powers of the NSA. (America remains one of the few
               | countries in which one can form a legal entity with zero
               | identification.)
        
               | _3u10 wrote:
               | Obviously if this agreement conflicts with the patriot
               | act, it's unpatriotic and America is right not to sign
               | it.
        
           | advisedwang wrote:
           | The typical answer to this would be places like Switzerland,
           | Germany and the Cayman Islands.
        
         | malvim wrote:
         | You are dead wrong about Brazil, our legislation about online
         | privacy is pretty advanced. The European Union is not a country
         | but has pretty solid legislation as well. Other South American
         | countries on the list are pretty good as well.
         | 
         | You seem to be making a blanket statement about "not the first
         | country I think about when..." of places you know nothing
         | about.
        
         | lbrito wrote:
         | Sweden, Uruguay and Portugal are on that list, to name a few
         | more advanced countries. Seems like a pretty good list.
         | 
         | I wonder what countries you do associate with data privacy.
        
           | strictnein wrote:
           | Clearly when one thinks of data privacy they think of China,
           | Venezuela, Russia, Congo, DRPK, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran,
           | Belarus, etc etc etc
        
             | lbrito wrote:
             | Ah -- sarcasm.
             | 
             | You're absolutely right. When thinking of data privacy
             | people think of the USA, where you can be sent off to a
             | gulag island if a random officer does not like what he sees
             | on your personal phone -- which he is, of course, legally
             | allowed to search for no good reason.
        
         | tamimio wrote:
         | > Not countries I usually associate with caring about privacy.
         | 
         | Well, people should start accepting new norms that are
         | different from what they used to know, not just data privacy,
         | but even in other values as well, like personal freedom. I am
         | sure some of the countries above have more personal freedom for
         | a person compared to countries that lecture others about it,
         | meanwhile the individuals get tracked by their phone through
         | cell towers, get tracked while on the road by some unregulated
         | cameras, get tracked online with digital ID, get tracked
         | everywhere and if you end up getting caught and prosecuted, you
         | will lose your basic human needs like getting a job or even
         | voting in the so called free countries.
        
       | orenlindsey wrote:
       | All this would do is drive criminals to poorer countries that
       | can't stop crime as well. Just like many scammers being based in
       | South Asia, or billionaires moving their money to tax havens. It
       | just takes one country to allow this stuff or at least not stop
       | it, and your treaties are just pieces of paper.
        
       | hypeatei wrote:
       | I don't understand why political topics such as international
       | treaties like this are upvoted and kept on the front page? To be
       | clear, I'm in favor of politics being discussed on here, but this
       | is so uninteresting and pointless to discuss IMO. International
       | law can be ignored even by countries that agreed to it. What are
       | you going to do, invade? As pointed out, countries like China and
       | Russia signed onto a cybercrime treaty... pure slop.
       | 
       | Just seems very distracting when actual abuses and interesting
       | political topics are hidden away in /active (like ICEs use of
       | facial recognition)
        
       | nizbit wrote:
       | Don't have to look far to find out why.
       | 
       | Per the article: "Illicit flows of money, concealed through
       | cryptocurrencies and digital transactions, finance the
       | trafficking of drugs, arms, and terror. And businesses,
       | hospitals, and airports are brought to a standstill by ransomware
       | attacks."
       | 
       | Then there's this: Inside the Trump family's global crypto cash
       | machine https://www.reuters.com/investigations/inside-trump-
       | familys-...
        
       | abtinf wrote:
       | Once again, Chat Control is a never ending battle.
        
       | mrkramer wrote:
       | Russia in particular is turning the blind eye on en masse cyber
       | crime that is originating from Russia. Russian hackers in the
       | last two decades stole millions of credit cards from US and EU
       | and hacked numerous banks and still the biggest Russian cyber
       | criminals are at large in Russia. Just look at the FBI's top 10
       | wanted for cyber crime.
        
         | ryanisnan wrote:
         | I think you're misreading the situation. As far as I can tell,
         | Russia has every reason to want to continue engaging in heavy
         | cyber-criminal activities. I don't think this is the virtuous
         | Kremlin turning a blind eye. This is a classic case of
         | deception. Look at my left hand, so you don't see what my right
         | is doing.
        
           | mrkramer wrote:
           | They see it as asymmetrical warfare, I know that; but if US
           | would let US cyber criminals steal millions of Russian and
           | Chinese credit cards or some other PII, I would perceive that
           | as distasteful and not as a form of counterintelligence.
        
         | edm0nd wrote:
         | RU cybercriminals pay bribes to RU law enforcement to stay out
         | of trouble as well as bend the knee and work for GRU/KBG when
         | called upon for various requests by them.
         | 
         | then there is also the unspoken rule of "dont shit where you
         | eat" aka RU/CIS based ransomware operators and hackers cant
         | attack any companies in the CIS region.
         | 
         | a good read, https://www.recordedfuture.com/research/dark-
         | covenant-3-cont...
        
       | phendrenad2 wrote:
       | Let me guess - the "treaty" really means setting up a UN-run
       | organization that will oversee global cybercrime defense. Let's
       | check out the last time that happened. Oh yeah, the WHO. The WHO
       | that lied about the coronavirus and said it isn't airborne
       | despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
        
       | radial_symmetry wrote:
       | Just a reminder that the UN exists as a place where countries
       | with very opposing points of view can have a forum for
       | discussion. A treaty put forth by the UN, or a declaration by the
       | UN, does not automatically mean that it is good or aligned with
       | your values in any way shape or form.
        
       | taco_emoji wrote:
       | The United States is taking an indefinite hiatus. Please check
       | back later.
        
       | deafpolygon wrote:
       | notably absent are the netherlands and germany... wonder why this
       | is!
        
       | iamnothere wrote:
       | Nice to see abstention from Canada, Finland, Japan, South Korea,
       | India, Iceland, Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland as well. Not
       | everyone is on board with this (for good reason), it's not just
       | the big bad US ignoring the rest of the world.
       | 
       | Given the presence of some extremely authoritarian states on the
       | list of signatories, the fact that the UK and France signed on
       | seems to confirm my suspicions about the trajectory of freedom in
       | those countries. And surprisingly Sweden! I feel like Mullvad
       | users should be concerned.
        
         | SllX wrote:
         | All better company than the countries listed as signatories.
         | 
         | I'm actually not sure about Germany though. I almost posted a
         | similar list above but then I noticed the European Union is
         | listed as a signatory, so not sure where that puts the EU
         | members not listed:
         | https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mt...
        
           | iamnothere wrote:
           | This is indeed strange. Can the EU sign treaties that are
           | binding on all member countries? And if so, what's the deal
           | with France and other countries signing on redundantly?
           | 
           | Edit: another commenter mentioned something about treaties
           | needing to go through the EU parliament and council if the
           | areas of concern aren't delegated to the EU. Not sure which
           | side of the fence this falls under, and I bet there are some
           | potential legal challenges waiting regardless. So perhaps
           | France is hedging its bets by signing on as an individual
           | nation, indicating its willingness to implement the treaty no
           | matter what happens with the rest of the EU. But I am no
           | expert on EU bureaucracy and politics!
        
             | SllX wrote:
             | > But I am no expert on EU bureaucracy and politics!
             | 
             | I'd be shocked if anyone alive is.
             | 
             | A couple of weeks ago the Council of the EU authorized both
             | the Commission and members to sign onto this convention.
             | That's the best I've got and it still doesn't tell us if
             | this is would apply automatically to Germany and others
             | without them signing on, but I guess in theory it helps the
             | convention get over the 40 signature threshold if it
             | weren't going to already. Signing on still isn't done
             | either as it runs from October 25th 2025 through December
             | 31st 2026.
             | 
             | PS: if you saw a previous version of this comment, your
             | eyes weren't fooling you, I just got taken for a ride by a
             | bad source that confused the Council of Europe with the
             | Council of the EU so I nuked it.
        
             | pbasista wrote:
             | > Can the EU sign treaties that are binding on all member
             | countries?
             | 
             | That depends on the topic of the treaty.
             | 
             | The EU member countries have delegated their decision
             | making powers _on certain limited number of topics_ to the
             | EU institutions, like The EU Commission, The EU Council or
             | possibly others. One such topic is the trade. As a result,
             | all EU countries share the same trade policy.
             | 
             | For other topics, where there is no such delegation in
             | place, everything needs to be ratified by every member
             | country individually.
             | 
             | I am unsure into which category this particular treaty
             | falls.
        
       | zaoui_amine wrote:
       | US knows this treaty is a joke. No point in signing when the bad
       | actors are already in.
        
       | bloppe wrote:
       | Ya, this isn't surprising.
       | 
       | https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/the-un...
       | 
       | > states parties are obligated to establish laws in their
       | domestic system to "compel" service providers to "collect or
       | record" real-time traffic or content data.
       | 
       | That's probably the biggest poison pill. The whole data sharing
       | thing got watered down to the point of farce. Of course the EU
       | won't extradite Russian LGBT activists under this law. But
       | similarly, how likely do you think it would be for North Korea to
       | extradite its own state-sponsored cybercriminals? They can simply
       | claim that doing so would go against their "sovereignty,
       | security, or other essential interests". Case closed!
        
       | shevy-java wrote:
       | The USA has chosen Evil here.
       | 
       | This also confirms the PSF foundation being wary. The USA would
       | love to put unaffiliated developers in prison.
        
       | tiberius_p wrote:
       | Any treaty joined by Russia is compromised from the start.
        
       | mlinksva wrote:
       | It's a very good thing the US has declined to sign this. The
       | digital rights community has been campaigning against it since
       | its proposal by Russia in 2017. The US not signing it is a small
       | victory across a very large loss. Many explainers like
       | https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/joint-statement-un-cyb...
        
       | bilekas wrote:
       | The title sounds more ominous than it really is. Why would the US
       | want to weaken their position when it comes to advancing their
       | cyber warfare weapons. Unrestricted they don't even need to
       | pretend to be playing nice. I prefer the honesty at least.
        
       | xyst wrote:
       | When it comes to the UN, if Israel doesn't sign/agree to it.
       | Usually USA follows.
       | 
       | "America first", right? Load of horse shit.
        
       | beanjuiceII wrote:
       | the US makes smart decision unlike 70 countries, fixed the title
        
       | reenorap wrote:
       | Has the UN actually solved any problems in the last 40+ years? It
       | seems like a massive bureaucracy that is absolutely ineffective.
       | They have been completely ineffective with respect to Ukraine,
       | Gaza, COVID, any other conflict around the world.
       | 
       | When the W.H.O. went into China to "investigate" the COVID virus
       | and came back saying "Nope, nothing to see here!" was probably
       | one of the most predictable and pathetic things from the UN.
        
       | tamimio wrote:
       | I bet that's the real reason why
       | 
       | https://www.reuters.com/investigations/inside-trump-familys-...
        
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