A former Hong Kong telecom worker was yesterday jailed for publishing personal details of police officers and their families during last year’s pro-democracy protests, the first such conviction linked to the political unrest.
Chan King-hei (陳景僖), 33, was sentenced to two years in jail after being convicted last month of unlawfully obtaining and disclosing personal data stored on computers at his former employer, Hong Kong Telecom.
Publishing personal details online — known as “doxing” — became a common tactic used by both sides of Hong Kong’s political divide during last year’s protests.
Police became a key target for protesters as clashes raged — especially after officers stopped wearing identification badges — while government loyalists have also doxed Beijing’s critics.
During their investigation, police discovered personal information, including ID card and telephone numbers, as well as residential addresses of officers and their families on Chan’s mobile phone.
They also found that he had downloaded files from his company’s computers. Some of the personal details were then shared on the encrypted messaging service Telegram — on a channel dedicated to exposing the personal details of police officers and pro-government figures, the court said.
Hong Kong was last year convulsed by seven consecutive months of protests calling for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability.
Backed by Beijing, the authorities refused concessions and more than 10,000 people were arrested. The courts are filled with prosecutions and Beijing imposed sweeping national security legislation in June.
The measures have snuffed out mass expressions of dissent, but the underlying causes of the unrest remain unaddressed.
A 25-year old immigration official is being prosecuted for allegedly using government computers to access the personal information of more than 220 individuals, including police officers, senior officials, judges and their family members.
A Web site called HK Leaks has also ramped up its doxxing of government critics, especially since the national security legislation was imposed. HK Leaks has so far posted the personal details of more than 2,000 people that it deems guilty of various “misdeeds” against China.
Registered on a Russian server, it is specifically designed to evade prosecution, experts have said.
“It is saddening that doxing acts often lead to cyberbullying or even criminal intimidation of the victims and their family members,” Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Ada Chung (鍾麗玲) said following yesterday’s sentencing.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
RSS