President Joe Biden is co-hosting the second Summit for Democracy on Wednesday, expanding on the diplomatic initiatives he established in 2021 to bolster democracies around the world in the face of autocracies’ growing global influence.
This year’s multi-day summit is being co-hosted by Biden, as well as the leaders of Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Korea and Zambia. After a morning introduction on Wednesday, Biden will lead a virtual summit event in Washington that’s focused on democracy delivering on global challenges.
During the summit, the Biden administration will announce new steps to counter the abuse and misuse of technology, including a “joint commitment” with foreign partners “to counter the proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware,” according to an administration official.
The announcement is coming days after the president issued an executive order banning US government agencies from using spyware that is deemed a threat to US national security or are implicated in human rights abuses. On Monday, CNN reported at least 50 US government officials are suspected or confirmed to have been targeted by invasive commercial spyware designed to hack mobile phones, revealing a far bigger number than previously known.
As part of Wednesday’s announcement, the official told reporters on a call Tuesday, the administration and its partners will release a set of “guiding principles on how rights-respecting governments should use surveillance technology more broadly,” noting that while surveillance and spyware technologies may, “of course, have lawful applications,” they “have been shown to be heavily misused by authoritarian states.”
Each host nation is focusing on a separate so-called “pillar” of democracy during plenary sessions throughout the summit: supporting free and independent media, combating corruption, bolstering…
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