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More Than 50 Nations, But Not U.S., Sign Cybersecurity Pact

By November 13, 2018Article

French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week announced a pact between 51 countries and 70 large tech companies to increase global cybersecurity measures.

Although many of the signatories were U.S.­–based companies, most notably including Facebook, which is trying to clean up its practices after the Russia election-meddling scandal, the United States government did not endorse the pact. Russia and China also did not endorse the pact. 

The nonbinding agreement, the Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace, outlines the following principles:

  • increase prevention against and resilience to malicious online activity;
  • protect the accessibility and integrity of the Internet;
  • cooperate in order to prevent interference in electoral processes;
  • work together to combat intellectual property violations via the Internet;
  • prevent the proliferation of malicious online programs and techniques;
  • improve the security of digital products and services as well as everybody’s “cyber hygiene”;
  • clamp down on online mercenary activities and offensive action by non-state actors;
  • work together to strengthen the relevant international standards.

Relatedly, Facebook has also pledged to allow French observers to embed at the company to see how it fights online hate speech. Macron says that he’d also like to send observers to other large tech companies, including Google, Apple and Amazon.

 

Clare Christopher is editor of SandHill.com.

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