The United Nation’s Summit of the Future 2024 held ahead of this year’s UN General Assembly has revealed that the world organization is moving toward adding more initiatives to its existing, and upcoming, “power grab portfolio.”
This time it’s the Pact for the Future (with the Global Digital Compact as an annex), that has just been adopted.
The main component of this scheme is the “action-oriented outcome” document, the other being an international agreement, and the implementation of both, driven by the UN, is expected to start after the summit.
We obtained a copy of the document for you here.
The summary of the purpose of two deals is to put a positive spin and push for immediate and as wide as possible adoption of such controversial policies as censorship (“disinformation” crackdown), surveillance, and the so-called digital public infrastructure (DPI) with digital IDs as its component.
There is also the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) – in itself an agenda endorsed by major countries that, among other things, looks to usher in digital IDs, as well as new tools, and justifications, for censorship.
The Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations are a part of the Pact for the Future, whose adoption concludes several years of negotiations between countries and various stakeholders.
Those who pushed for the document to be adopted, both among politicians and the media, say it is the most significant of its kind in decades, and a necessary adjustment of the old rules to what is all but referred to as the new world order – the actual quote from the president of the UN General assembly is that this “lays the foundations for a sustainable, just, and peaceful global order.”
It ranges from peace and security, climate, financing for development, and sustainable development, to “digital cooperation,” as well as “human rights and gender” and, supposedly, “more meaningful opportunities for young people” – 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 referred to as “actions.”
One of the key ones is Action 1, which speaks about accelerating steps toward the universal and far-reaching 2030 Agenda while achieving sustainable development goals (SDG), and “leaving no one behind.”
Action 4 is dedicated to financing SDGs, and how to close “the gap” in developing countries.
With action Action 8, countries-signatories commit to gender equality, and the empowerment of “all” women and girls, again as a key part of the SDGs.
Action 12 is another dedicated to finding the most efficient ways (“turbocharge the full implementation”) to push SDGs and manage to do that by 2023, the consequences of which will, naturally, continue in the years beyond.
14 “actions” fall under the international peace and security segment of the document, where the UN reaffirms its actual role and reason for existing.
This covers issues such as building peace, protecting civilians, and moving toward a nuclear weapons-free world.
In the last draft, Action 28 (which is in the science, technology, innovation, and digital cooperation category), it reads that the signatories will address the potential risks and seize the opportunities associated with new and emerging technologies.
In the adopted document, this “action” states, “We will seize the opportunities presented by science, technology, and innovation for the benefit of people and the planet.”
It then adds that those implementing the pact will promote “ethical and responsible” use of science, technology, and innovation.
Global Digital Compact goes into the details of combating “disinformation.” Under “Digital Trust and Safety,” this annex to the pact speaks about the need for the signatories to “urgently counter” things considered disinformation, misinformation, hate speech, and cyberbullying, while child sexual exploitation is thrown into the same sentence.
The annex further talks about “information integrity” where that and “tolerance and respect” will be promoted in the digital space, which will (unavoidably and/or declaratively) be inclusive, open, safe, and secure.
While a lot of the document might read like a big compilation of usual platitudes associated mostly with liberal policies, it does provide a formal platform for nation-states of various “persuasions,” including authoritarian ones, to mold the pact to suit their purpose, impose new policies and enforce new, or more rules.
One of the “urgent” measures that the Global Digital Compact calls for and commits is found under “Information Integrity” and wants social media platforms to “provide researchers access to data” with the obligatory mention of hazy “safeguards for user privacy.”
The purpose of providing this data would be “to ensure transparency and accountability to build an evidence base on how to address misinformation and disinformation and hate speech that can inform government and industry policies, standards and best practices.”
