Liberal democracies must stand up

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Liberal democracies must stand up

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• Unknown unknowns: Former US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld gave the term "unknown unknowns", and today the Pegasus snooping scandal perfectly fits that description. It's clear that the damage is very deep, perhaps unknown too, but a solid pushback is needed now.
• The supposed targets: The creator of Pegasus software, the NSO group, intended it to be used against "major criminals" and "terrorists", but various regimes (even democratic ones) have used it for far more than that. 

1. Civil liberties have been destroyed easily, and authoritarianism strengthened
2. Once civil liberties are assaulted anywhere in the world, it's akin to eroding freedoms everywhere
3. Any citizen concerned about freedom ought to be concerned about this snooping
4. But leadership to this pushback has to come primarily from liberal democracies - governments, leaders, political parties, organisations and citizens

• Where to start: First, build a norm. Start a frank discussion on technologies like Pegasus and impact on human freedom.

1. Fix the accountability of the NSO Group, which had released its first "Transparency and Responsibility Report" in June, where is spoke of human rights and privacy (while it destroys both!)
2. NSO claims it gave up business worth $300 million as the potential customers were not having a clean record on human rights, and declined business with 55 countries (that list of 55 excludes the 10 or so now exposed)
3. Other than NSO, it is Israel itself that's involved. It claims that a department inside Ministry of Defence restricts Pegasus licensing, and checks the human rights record of potential buyers
4. So a sovereign state is using its privilege as an international actor, to regulate a private surveillance product, for use by other sovereigns, but with inbuilt risks of human rights abuse that can harm inter-state relations

• Israel's duty: It has promised France it'll explain what happened, but it must do so to the entire world. In fact, global liberal democracies must see the Isreal-NSO nexus as a starting point for combating such dangerous surveillance technologies.
• Perfectly dangerous: The Pegasus software needs "zero clicks" to infiltrate, and exposes everything in devices to hackers. That is tremendously dangerous for the targets. 
• Times change: After 9/11, the defining challenge for governments was terrorism. But that has now morphed into an attack on civil liberties. The right balance between national security and citizens' freedoms has to be again established. The liberal ground conceded, has to be reclaimed.
• Be confident: The liberal democratic governments seem diffident in front of authoritarians, but they must confidently remind that human freedoms are valuable, desirable and preferable. Instead of accommodating the autocrats any more (which started with Russia and China, and spread to Europe, South Asia, West Asia), they must push back hard now. 
• Don't just praise: Empty praise of democracy of their allies is of now use, unless the steady erosion of human rights is also taken up sharply. Otherwise, they too are party to this murder of human rights.
• Summary: It is the right time to call out friends and partners, and then take on the surveillance creators. A golden moment, indeed.

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