Hong Kong’s leader yesterday brushed off a warning by major tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, that they might quit the territory if authorities push ahead with a new privacy law.
Authorities have unveiled plans to pass a new law targeting “doxxing” — the act of publishing someone’s private details online so that they can be harassed by others.
However, the broad wording of the proposed legislation has spooked major tech companies, who fear that they could be held liable and their employees prosecuted for users’ content.
Photo: EPA-EFE
They detailed their concerns in a letter sent to the Hong Kong government by the Asia Internet Coalition, which includes tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Apple.
“Introducing sanctions aimed at individuals is not aligned with global norms and trends,” said the letter, which was dated June 25, but made public this week.
“The only way to avoid these sanctions for technology companies would be to refrain from investing and offering their services in Hong Kong, thereby depriving Hong Kong businesses and consumers, whilst also creating new barriers to trade,” it added.
Asked about the warning yesterday, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) dismissed those concerns.
“We are targeting illegal doxxing and empowering the privacy commissioners to investigate and carry out operations — that’s it,” Lam told reporters.
Lam likened the new data privacy powers to national security legislation that the Chinese government imposed on Hong Kong last year.
Lam said that the National Security Law had been “slandered and defamed.”
“It’s the same case for the privacy law,” she added.
Hong Kong’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data would be happy to meet with tech industry representatives to deal with any anxieties they might have, Lam said, adding that her government was determined to press ahead with fast-tracking the new legislation.
“Of course, it would be ideal to relieve this anxiety when we make the legislation, but sometimes it needs to be demonstrated via implementation,” she said.
China monitors and strictly controls its Internet, but Hong Kong so far has fewer restrictions and markets itself as a regional tech center.
However, international technology firms have been increasingly rattled by Beijing’s campaign to make the territory more like China, including its push to dismantle Hong Kong’s democracy movement.
Doxxing become an issue during the political unrest of 2019.
Democracy supporters used it to post private details about police, judges and officials. Beijing loyalists also doxxed democracy supporters.
In its letter, the Asia Internet Coalition said that it was opposed to doxxing and supported finding ways to tackle the issue.
However, it said that the legislation’s current vague wording could curtail “innocent acts of sharing information online” and place tech firms at risk of prosecution for what users write.
It described the government’s current data privacy plan as a “completely disproportionate and unnecessary response.”
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