US Preparing to 'Unveil' Progress Under Export Control Human Rights Effort
The Biden administration this week plans to “unveil” new human rights-related export control measures as part of the second Summit for Democracy, a senior administration official said. The measures will show how the U.S. and its allies have so far implemented the Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative, an effort announced at the first democracy summit in 2021 that was designed to lead to better guardrails on exports of surveillance items and other technologies (see 2112090030).
The announcements, expected March 30, will focus on emerging technologies, “including with respect to countering their misuse,” the official said during a March 27 call with reporters. The U.S. and other democracies have made progress under the export control initiative and plan to showcase that work this week, the official said.
“We are taking steps to make sure that the way that we would like technology to be used is aligned with human rights and democratic principles all around the world,” the official said. “We must be clear about what we stand against -- the misuse of technology to repress, control, divide and disenfranchise.”
The announcement came the same day President Joe Biden issued a new executive order to prohibit U.S. government use of certain commercial spyware that has been “misused by foreign actors to enable human rights abuses” or that otherwise poses a threat to U.S national security. The order also requires the director of national intelligence to issue a “classified intelligence assessment” within 90 days on foreign commercial spyware. The report will include “intelligence, open source, financial, sanctions-related, export controls-related, and due diligence information.”
Officials said the announcement builds on export control measures the U.S. has imposed against companies and people for abusive uses of spyware, including by Israel-based NSO Group and Candiru, which the Commerce Department placed on its Entity List in 2021 (see 2111030010). Commerce also said it plans to release proposed restrictions this week to expand certain U.S.-persons activities that support foreign military, security or intelligence services (see 2303210037). The restrictions are designed to implement a provision in the FY 2023 defense spending bill that lawmakers said was partially meant to restrict U.S. hacking exports and services (see 2212210032).
An official said the administration can take a “range” of new “export control measures” to counter spyware efforts. “We view the challenge of the proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware as a multifaceted one,” another administration official said. The official pointed to a directive the DNI released last week that set employment restrictions on former U.S. intelligence community members. Among several prohibitions, the directive blocks some former intelligence officials from working for a “designated prohibited foreign country,” defined as China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Syria.
The directive was released after the State Department last year debarred three former U.S. intelligence community and military members after they violated the International Traffic in Arms Regulations when working for United Arab Emirates-based DarkMatter Group, a company that carried out computer hacking operations to benefit the UAE government (see 2208260013 and 2109150031).
The U.S. is hoping to limit “circumstances in which entities may try to recruit U.S. personnel to develop” hacking tools, an administration official said, among other ways foreign companies look to acquire spyware technologies and services. “This includes the need for regulation of the tech sector to promote accountability and transparency,” another official said, and the “imperative to look ahead and to shape emerging technologies.”