TREATY -''CYBERCRIME''- TREATS : ESSAY 60 UN MEMBERS

HANOI : More than 60 countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi on Saturday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance.

The new global legal framework aims to strengthen international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyber scams and money laundering.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an '' important milestone '', but that it was '' only the beginning ''.

'' EVERY DAY, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy ....... We need a strong, connected global response,'' he said at the opening ceremony in Vietnam's capital.

The UN Convention against Cybercrime was first proposed by Russian diplomats in 2017, and approved by consensus last year after lengthy negotiations.

Critics say its broad language could lead to abuse of powers and enable the cross-border repression of government critics.

'' There were multiple concerns raised throughout the negotiations of the treaty around how it actually ends up compelling companies to share data,'' said Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, founder of the Tech Global Institute think tank.

'' It's almost rubber-stamping a very problematic practice that has been used against journalists and in authoritarian countries,'' she said.

WEAK SAFEGUARDS : Vietnam's government said this week that 60 countries were registered for the official signing, without disclosing which ones.

But the list will not be limited to Russia, China and their allies.

'' Cybercrime is a real issue across the world,'' Diya said. '' I think everybody's kind of grappling with it.''

The far-reaching online scam industry, for example, has ballooned in Southeast Asia in recent years, with thousands of scammers estimated to be involved and victims worldwide conned out of billions of dollars annually. 

'' Even for the most democratic states, I think they need some degree of access to data that they're not getting under existing mechanisms,'' Diya said.

Democratic countries might describe the UN convention as a '' compromise document '', as it contains some human-rights provisions, she added.

But these safeguards were slammed as ''weak '' in a letter signed by more than a dozen rights groups and other organizations.

The World Students Society thanks AFP.