UN urges global control with new pact: Digital IDs, censorship and surveillance at the core

The UN Summit for the Future 2024, held ahead of this year’s UN General Assembly, has revealed that the world body is working on adding more initiatives to its existing and future “power grab portfolio”.

This time it is the Pact for the Future (with the Global Digital Compact as an annex) that has just been adopted.

The main component of this plan is the “actionable outcome” document, the other is an international agreement. Implementation of both, led by the UN, is expected to begin after the summit.

We have a copy of the document available for you here.

The summary of the aim of two deals is to put a positive spin on and advocate for the immediate and widest possible adoption of controversial policies such as censorship (‘counter-disinformation’), surveillance and the so-called digital public infrastructure (DPI) with digital IDs as part of it.

Then there are the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This agenda itself is supported by major countries and focuses on, among other things, the introduction of digital IDs and new tools and justifications for censorship.

The Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations are part of the Pact for the Future. Their adoption is the culmination of years of negotiations between countries and various stakeholders.

Those who have advocated for the document’s adoption, both among politicians and in the media, say it is the most significant of its kind in decades, and a necessary adjustment of the old rules to what is being called the new world order – the actual quote from the President of the UN General Assembly is that it “lays the foundation for a sustainable, just and peaceful world order.”

It ranges from peace and security, climate, financing for development and sustainable development to ‘digital cooperation’, and also ‘human rights and gender’ and, supposedly, ‘more meaningful opportunities for youth’ – as far as decision-making is concerned.

The pact is divided into five segments and two annexes (Global Digital Compact and Declaration on Future Generations), and a total of 56 points are designated as ‘actions’.

One of the most important is Action 1, which talks about accelerating steps towards the universal and far-reaching Agenda 2030, while achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ‘leaving no one behind’.

Action 4 focuses on financing SDGs and how we can close the ‘gap’ in developing countries.

With Action 8, signatory countries commit to gender equality and the empowerment of ‘all’ women and girls, again as a key part of the SDGs.

Action 12 is another one that aims to find the most efficient ways (‘turbocharging full implementation’) to push the SDGs and achieve that by 2023. The consequences of that will of course be felt in the years after that as well.

14 ‘actions’ fall under the international peace and security segment of the document, in which the UN reaffirms its real role and raison d’être.

This includes building peace, protecting civilians and the transition to a world without nuclear weapons.

The latest draft, Action 28 (in the science, technology, innovation and digital cooperation category), states that signatories will address the potential risks and seize the opportunities associated with new and emerging technologies.

The adopted document states in this ‘action’: ‘We will seize the opportunities offered by science, technology and innovation for the benefit of people and the planet.’

It then adds that those implementing the pact will promote the “ethical and responsible” use of science, technology and innovation.

The Global Digital Compact goes into detail on combating “disinformation.” Under “Digital Trust and Security,” this annex to the compact speaks of the need for signatories to “urgently counter” what are considered disinformation, misinformation, hate speech and cyberbullying, while child sexual exploitation is mentioned in the same sentence.

The appendix further discusses ‘information integrity’, promoting that and ‘tolerance and respect’ in the digital space, which will be (inevitably and/or declaratively) inclusive, open, safe and secure.

While much of the document may read like a vast compilation of the usual platitudes associated primarily with liberal policies, it does provide a formal platform for nation states of various “tendencies,” including authoritarian ones, to bend the pact to their own ends, impose new policies, and enforce new or more rules.

One of the “urgent” measures the Global Digital Compact calls for and commits to is found under “Information Integrity” and wants social media platforms to “provide researchers with access to data,” with the mandatory inclusion of vague “user privacy safeguards.”

The purpose of providing this data would be “to ensure transparency and accountability to build an evidence base on how to address misinformation, disinformation and hate speech, which can inform government and industry policies, standards and best practices.”

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