back to article Russia, China fight UN effort to extend human rights onto the internet

Russia and China are fighting an effort at the United Nations (UN) to extend human rights to the internet. The resolution was due to be voted on at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on Thursday, but the vote was put off until Friday amid growing tensions and a spotlight put on the vote by a campaign of over 80 organizations, …

  1. Baldy50

    WTF!

    As if China and Russia give fook about human rights, online, offline any fooking time.

    1. Dadmin

      Re: WTF!

      Correct, Sir! Those two, extra-special, oppressive regimes go WAY out of their way to control all forms of media that enter the country, and exit. Can you imagine the mass exodus that would occur if the people from those two places found out about what's available here in the real world? It'd be like waking Neo up from The Matrix all over again, times a billion.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Absolute BS

        This is what Americans ACTUALLY believe.

        I've lived in both countries for a fair few years, and your narrative couldn't be more divorced from reality.

        What you're missing is that people have different world-views and priorities. It's not that Chinese people aren't aware of the differences to western countries, but they see it very differently. The more traditional Chinese people think we (westerners) are the ones who have things wrong, while the younger ones like to cherry-pick aspects of western culture, but are still proud to be Chinese which is at its core, a Confucian mindset.

        Russians overall support strong, authoritative government, which is why they have what they have.

        Try living in other countries for long enough to understand their culture. Until you do, your education will never be complete, and you're basically still a child.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Absolute BS

          We perfectly understand Chinese and Russian culture - and how they ensure everybody thinks like the government likes suppressing any different thought.

          That's why we believe they are utterly dangerous. And not that we didn't tried it as well, just we saw the terrible result, and we would like to avoid to return there.

          It's childish to believe Russia and China are not big threats to freedom.

        2. Aodhhan

          Re: Absolute BS

          You're either a liar or spent your time in China with the oligarchy. The people know too well the corruption which exists and the control of information by their government. Not to mention, there are some very smart citizens made to work in box factories making crappy off-shoot items. Imagine if you were put in this position.

          Most people in China/Russia countries despise their governments, but love their country. If western culture is so hated in China, there wouldn't be the boon there is now with western items an increase in things like automobiles and other technological advancements seen as having a western origin.

          What China and Russia both do very well is control information. They don't want anything getting into their country which will contradict what the government says. As long as people are told this and that and there isn't any opposing information getting in to provide objective thought, the people remain ignorant. In short, they don't know what they don't know. This is how the government wants it... not the people.

          The majority in Russia and China eat up whatever information they get from the west. They aren't stupid. Like any other nation's citizens, they want to learn and hear what's going on in the world.

          Finally, most American's want the government to stay away from the Internet as much as possible. They want absolutely no regulations, no control, no say from the politicians on how it is used, what is put on it and security requirements. The only one thing they will stand for, is regulating protection of people and their assets.

  2. Mark 85

    Simply amazing....

    The resolution, which was written by a number of countries including Brazil, Nigeria, Turkey and the USA, also includes recommendations to strengthen anonymity and encryption

    In the UN, the States want to strengthen anonymity and encryption.. yet our lawmakers and TLA's want to do away with it. Then again, we're not exactly a paragon of human rights but again, we're supporting them.

    Yeah.. I know... the government here pretty much ignores the UN on most things.... but still, it just seems rather bizarre.

    1. Tomato42
      Unhappy

      Re: Simply amazing....

      you're forgetting that USA is "exceptional" and that they will maybe sign, but never ratify this new law

      you know, like domestic laws apply only to some people, just not those in establishment or enforcement...

  3. Craigness

    I'm with them

    The UN has recently cosied up to people who want to use the "condemns violations against people for expressing their views online" angle to censor people they disagree with. They define disagreement as "violence" and "harassment" in order to get opposing views banned. There is no such thing as cyberviolence.

    One of the censors works for Twitter's Orwellian "trust and safety council" which is currently ok with publishing a threat of gang rape against Farage's daughter, and is happy to host a similar threat against Sarah Palin (made a few months ago), but takes down criticism of the EU's migration policy within 24 hours.

    Do you notice a pattern? This is not about ending "violence" or protecting people, it's about censoring people by claiming their words are violent. Certain words are never considered violent, because they target the people Twitter hates.

    They are slow to deal with death threats against republicans too.

    http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/06/28/death-threats-made-to-republican-senators-remain-for-weeks/ Yes, it's Breitbart. It any of the publications which campaign against "online harassment" gave a damn about harassment of men or conservatives I'd have linked the their story about it, but they don't

    This is the atmosphere that makes liberals think they can beat up Trump supporters and assassinate the man himself.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm with them

      Hear. Hear.

      This UN initiative is all about getting censorship of the internet in by the back door. I wouldn't trust the UN as far as I could throw one of their buildings.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Theresa May

    Will shortly be announcing her support for Russia and China.

    And then announce that Britain will soon become a global leader in this field...

    1. Hstubbe

      Re: Theresa May

      Britain is already leading in surveillance and oppression, at least in the European continent. They fit better with the US, Russia and China than with the rest of Europe, and have done so for at least a decade.

      1. Tom -1

        @Hstubbe Re: Theresa May

        At least a decade? Actually at least since July 2000 (when RIPA receied Royal Assent) and maybe a lot earlier, depending on when the various agencies started using section 94 of the Telecomms Act 1984 - I know it was used as early as October 2001 (after 9/11), but that's seven and a quarter years after the Act received Royal Assent so it may have been used for mass surveillance any time after July 1984.

        It's sad to see a Tory Home Secretary trying to top the anti-privacy pro-surveillance stuff promoted by the Home Secretaries of the Blair and Brown periods, but she is the Home Secretary who guided the Identity Documents Act 2010 which abolished the Blair era national identity card and the associated register so she can't be all bad.

        1. Thomas Steven 1

          Re: @Hstubbe Theresa May

          It may be imprudent to imagine a politician can't be all bad. Maybe she wants something worse.

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