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Underlining that “terrorism remains one of the gravest threats to humanity”, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, echoing a refrain at the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee meeting, flagged how new technology is re-shaping the contours of international terrorism and the response that this needed.
Indeed, this formed the basis of the Delhi Declaration — on countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes — adopted at the end of the two-day meeting of the 15-member UNSC in Mumbai and New Delhi.
In a thinly veiled reference to Pakistan, Jaishankar said that the UN Security Council’s counter-terrorism sanctions regime has been “very effective in putting those countries on notice that had turned terrorism into a State-funded enterprise.
He announced that India will make a voluntary contribution of $0.5 million to the UN Trust Fund for Counter Terrorism this year to augment the efforts of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and provide capacity-building support to member states.
Speaking at the Special Meeting of the Counterterrorism Committee, attended by the UN Security Council Members, the External Affairs Minister pitched for global efforts to stop possible misuse of encrypted messaging and crypto-currency by “non-state actors” and cautioned that social media platforms have turned into potent instruments in the “toolkit” of terror groups.
This found an echo in British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly: “Within the space of two decades, terrorists have gone from circulating crackly voice recordings from the depths of Tora Bora, to global online recruitment and incitement campaigns, to live-streaming attacks.
UAE’s Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem Ebrahim Al-Hashimy reinforced this. “Terrorist groups are exploiting advances in commercial drone technology to carry out deadlier and stealthier attacks.
Drones can now fly faster, carry larger payloads and leverage artificial intelligence and other tools to operate without manual control.
Cautioning against the internet serving as a “terror enabler,” Al-Hashimy said: “Extremist content remains on the internet with algorithms that promote the search for new audiences, making terror activity so appealing…hate speech, terrorist narratives, extremist language, disinformation, misinformation campaigns, continue to undermine and break down our social fabric.
We must find ways to fast track efforts and strengthen regulatory and legislative frameworks to protect users, our communities and our children.
Express Network
Nations flag use of drones, cryptocurrency (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
The threat posed by drones, terror funding through cryptocurrency and the use of internet by terrorist outfits were among the key concerns raised at the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) meeting in New Delhi.
Government representatives and experts from multiple countries expressed their views on the use of emerging technologies by terrorists. At the end of the two-day meeting, the Delhi Declaration of the CTC took note of the threats and called on members to take measures to combat them.
The declaration expressed “deep concern that terrorism has become more diffuse aided by terrorists’ adaptation to, and the use of new and emerging technologies while recognizing that innovations in technology may offer significant counter-terrorism opportunities.”
It noted with “additional concern, the increasing global misuse of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) by terrorists to conduct attacks against, and incursions into critical infrastructure and soft targets or public places, and to traffic drugs and arms”.
Expressing concern over the access that groups such as the Islamic State and Al Qaeda have to drones, the declaration called on member states “to develop a comprehensive understanding of the risks posed by terrorist use of UAS and of specific terrorist groups’ systems for acquiring UAS and their components”.
It also asked members to develop measures to deter, detect and disrupt the acquisition and use of drones by terrorists, and engage in partnerships with the private sector to this end.
Representatives from countries such as China, Russia and France argued for a united approach against the drone threat and demanded a regulatory framework that could be adopted by member states.
UAS remains attractive for malicious actors as they are relatively accessible, affordable, and require minimal training… A whole of society approach is needed to counter terrorist exploitation of UAS,” said Madan Oberoi, Executive Director for Technology and Innovation with the Interpol.
Oberoi said an Interpol report had highlighted drones as an asymmetric threat to law enforcement and that agencies and industry need to work together to counter them.
The report said the drone appears to be an asymmetric threat for law enforcement agencies. It also recommended a unified drone threat reporting system, further law enforcement engagement with industry and strong need for legislation and regulation to protect the restricted airspace of national interest.
The US said there has been a global uptick over the past year in attacks involving weaponised aerial systems. “Terrorists and other non-state actors have used UAS to attack critical infrastructure and military and diplomatic facilities.
We should continue sharing best practices building on existing efforts such as GCTFS Berlin memorandum on good practices to counter terrorist use of UAS,” the US representative said.
US, UK, France call for end to Ukraine war, Russia says West is supplying arms to Kyiv (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine entered ninth month, the conflict resonated in the UN Security Council Counter Terrorism Committee meet in Delhi.
While France, the US and the UK attacked Russia for its violent invasion of Ukraine, Russia accused them of supplying Kyiv weapons, which, it claimed, were going into the hands of terrorist organisations.
During the session on ‘Interventions from CTC members’, the representative from France attacked Russia over use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) by state actors.
On the battlefield, state actors and also states are using drones and unmanned aerial vehicles indiscriminately, violating international law. France will continue to carry the values of multilateralism, democracy and international law in our common fight against terrorism.
The Russian representative blamed France and the UK for supplying weapons to Ukraine and held the UK responsible for Saturday’s attack on Crimean port city of Sevastopol.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet was allegedly attacked on Saturday through drones, damaging one of Russian warships.
We share the concern over UAS being used in different regions. We know that Kyiv regime is supplied by those instruments by Western regimes, including Great Britain and France, a massive attack on the city of Sevastopol took place, with the use of UAS and with the direct participation of the Great Britain.
Luckily Sevastopol city managed to react in a quick manner. We believe all of our efforts should be directed at preventing misuse of UAS by terrorists.
The UK, too, joined the chorus with its representative saying, “Russia has made claims here today about the UK and the US.
But what cannot be denied and disputed is that the violence in Ukraine is the result of an illegal invasion by Russia and a clear violation of the UN charter. We call on Russia to end these illegal acts that have caused so much suffering in Ukraine and worldwide.”
At this, Russia demanded from the chair a right to reply which was granted. In reply, the Russian representative suggested that weapons supplied by the West to Ukraine were going to terrorist organisations.
We are indeed at loss as to why the response of our Western colleagues was so nervous and excited. ..today’s terrorist attack on the Sevastopol harbour was concocted by British engineers.
The official information is that the preparation for this terrorist attack as well as the training of the militia that exercised this terrorist attack was exercised in Chekov. And it all was managed by the British military engineers. As a result, civil infrastructure suffered,” he said.
Economy
If plaints not addressed, social media cos may be penalized (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekar said the government may consider penalising social media companies, if needed, for not addressing user grievances and shying away from accountability to make the internet a safe and trusted place.
The comments come a day after the government’s amendment to the IT Rules 2021, which included setting up of grievance appellate committees (GAC) to look into complaints by users of social media.
These committees will adjudicate complaints by users relating to blocking of content or accounts, after the complaints are not addressed or the users get an unsatisfactory response from the redressal officers of the social media firms concerned. However, the user will have the right to seek judicial remedy at any time.
He said the ‘broken’ grievance redressal mechanism currently being offered by social media platforms and lakhs of messages flagging users’ concerns around unresolved complaints had forced its hand.
Grievance Appellate Committee will be an important institution in the coming days for internet and intermediaries. We will soon make an announcement about its structure, constitution, scope, and terms of reference.
Chandrasekhar emphasised that the new panels — a couple to start with — will not substitute the civil court system, and their decision can be challenged.
Asked about massive capacities that would be needed to deal with the large volumes of user complaints, the minister said the panels were, in fact, a disincentive to intermediaries not to continue the “status quo, casual way of approaching grievance redresssal”.
Comments come a day after amendment to the IT Rules 2021, which included setting up of grievance appellate panels to look into complaints by social media users.
He also said while social media norms require platforms to remove illegal content within 72 hours of it being flagged, he feels the timelines are “too long” and platforms should take down such content “as fast as possible”.
He said the IT ministry was keen on prescribing a 24-hour timeline for removal of illegal content (as specified under rules) given that “virality and velocity” of misinformation tends to be much higher, but then finally settled for 72 hours after wide consultations.
The minister also said social media companies could lose access to their ‘safe harbour’ status on not complying with IT rules. Currently under Section 79 of IT Act 2000, intermediaries are protected from any legal prosecution related to content on their platforms. If they lose the status, they will lose that legal immunity for content posted on their platforms.