21st century statecraft vs. tweets as war crime

From my op-ed – exploring the links between Twitter, cyber-attacks and 21st century statecraf – running in the San Francisco Chronicle today: A growing number of case-studies – from Estonia to Georgia and from Israel to China – suggest that there are plenty of volunteers ready to subject their own computers to the risk of ...

From my op-ed - exploring the links between Twitter, cyber-attacks and 21st century statecraf - running in the San Francisco Chronicle today:

From my op-ed – exploring the links between Twitter, cyber-attacks and 21st century statecraf – running in the San Francisco Chronicle today:

A growing number of case-studies – from Estonia to Georgia and from Israel to China – suggest that there are plenty of volunteers ready to subject their own computers to the risk of a virus to prove a point and bestow justice on the oppressed.

We should not dismiss such acts of citizen-powered cyberwarfare as puerile. Not only could these cyberattacks cause significant damage to a country’s communication infrastructure, they could also throw those engaged in them into a legal gray area.

Many of these attacks are perpetrated by civilians, and are often driven by altruistic instincts rather than mercantile interests. The fact that the perpetrators may not be aware of the consequences of their actions does not absolve them from the moral and legal responsibilities involved.

Similarly, when cyberattacks accompany a conventional war effort – as they did in South Ossetia and the latest bloodshed in Gaza – we should not lose sight of the fact that having civilians involved in destructive acts of cyberwarfare might be interpreted as a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. Few national and international courts have addressed such issues. All it takes is one powerful lawsuit to change the rules of this game.

However, there may be a more direct way to mitigate the spread of such attacks: Nudge social media companies with new legal frameworks to treat these attacks as on a par with racism and hate speech.

 

Evgeny Morozov is a fellow at the Open Society Institute and sits on the board of OSI's Information Program. He writes the Net Effect blog on ForeignPolicy.com
Tag: War

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