Anti-Doxxing Law Could Force Tech Giants Including Amazon, Google From Hong Kong, Industry Group Warns
Proposed anti-doxxing laws could soon make Hong Kong an unsustainable place to do business, warned an industry group representing some of the world’s largest tech companies—including Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook—in the latest sign of growing dissatisfaction as Beijing tightens.
The previously undisclosed June 25 letter from an industry group through which Facebook, Twitter, and Google raised their alarm said bluntly that—
"The only way to avoid these sanctions for technology companies would be to refrain from investing and offering the services in Hong Kong..."
The letter calls the proposed penalties "completely disproportionate and unnecessary response" that will cast a broad enough legal net that will no doubt punish "innocent acts of sharing information online," according to select quotes unveiled for the first time in WSJ.
It remains to be seen whether they would go through with this 'nuclear option' - as Google and Facebook have elsewhere threatened to - for example in Australia for very different reasons (related to advertising revenue and new government efforts to ensure greater reward for local news sources).
The city' some 7.5 million population doesn't make it a huge user-base compared to much of the rest of the US companies' global presence; however, it's unthinkable to many that such a central international financial hub could be without Google or Twitter, for example. It would also certainly negatively impact any future protests movements or activists' ability to rapidly share information, as the law will also extend to Telegram, or any alternative platforms.
Paul Haswell of Hong Kong-based law firm Pinsent Masons summarized the slippery slope scenario easily foreseeable if the law goes into effect: "A broad reading of the rules could suggest that even an unflattering photo of a person taken in public, or of a police officer’s face on the basis that this would constitute personal data, could run afoul of the proposed amendments if posted with malice or an intention to cause harm, he said," according to WSJ.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/google-facebook-twitter-threaten-pull-services-hong-kong-over-proposed-doxxing-law