Macron launches Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace

At the opening of the annual UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF), held at UNESCO premises in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron launched the “Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace”, a high-level declaration on developing common principles for securing cyberspace. The Paris Call builds on the WSIS Tunis Agenda’s definition of the ‘respective roles’ of states and other stakeholders. It also resonates with the UN Group of Governmental Experts reaffirmation that international law applies to cyberspace. The declaration invites for support to victims both during peacetime and armed conflict, reaffirms Budapest Convention as the key tool for combating cybercrime, recognises the responsibility of private sector for products security, and calls for broad digital cooperation and capacity-building. It than invites signatories to, among other, prevent damaging general availability or integrity of the public core of the Internet, foreign intervention in electoral processes, ICT-enabled theft of intellectual property for competitive advantage, and non-state actors from ‘hacking-back’. The Paris Call has strong initial support from hundreds of signatories, including leading tech companies and many governments. Yet the USA, Russia, and China are missing. The declaration and its effects will be discussed again during the Paris Peace Forum in 2019, as well as during the IGF 2019 in Berlin.