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#GreatFireWall #106Crackdown
#WashingtonPost: First came political crimes. Now, a digital crackdown descends on Hong Kong

Source: Washington Post #Jan12
Image: #HKChronicles

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#GreatFireWall #106Crackdown
#WashingtonPost: First came political crimes. Now, a digital crackdown descends on Hong Kong

//The digital sweep showed how Hong Kong authorities are wielding their new powers under the national security law — introduced last summer — far more widely than the city’s leader promised.

Since the Jan. 6 raids, authorities have blocked at least one website, according to the site’s owner and local media reports, raising concerns that Hong Kong is headed for broader digital surveillance and censorship akin to that in mainland China.

...Shortly after the arrests and device seizures, colleagues and associates of those detained started noticing strange activity on their social media and email accounts. 

Ray Chan, a former pro-democracy lawmaker arrested at his home, said he kept receiving confirmation codessent by Telegram to a replacement phone after police confiscated his devices. The codes are used to verify the authenticity of a user trying to log into an account.

Separately, Lam Cheuk-ting and Helena Wong, two former Democratic Party lawmakers, said their staffs received notifications from Google that state-sponsored hackers were trying to breach their work accounts, which are hosted on a Gmail server. The Google alerts arrived just after their arrests, once their devices were in the hands of police.

“It is a redo of the Great Firewall,” said Lokman Tsui, an assistant professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who specializes in privacy and online communications. “They are testing the waters for now, so the results are uneven — but it is a question of when and how, not if.”

Glacier Kwong, founder of Keyboard Frontline, which tracks digital rights in Hong Kong, said the government clearly intends to crack down on one of the last free spaces for dissent.

“The government has actually set a precedent,” Kwong said. “As long as it is not to the liking of the regime, a website can be blocked without any reason under the national security law, which is a clear blow to the freedom of the Internet, freedom of information and freedom of speech.”//

Read the full article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/hong-kong-national-security-law-internet/2021/01/12/01738064-53b6-11eb-acc5-92d2819a1ccb_story.html

Source: Washington Post #Jan12

#CyberSecurity #PoliceState #HKChronicles #Internet
Chinese Political Censorship Reaches the U.S., North America WeChat users could be blocked at any time.

The U.S. government originally planned to block WeChat overseas version last September, but the court suspended the ban and the appeal will be heard next Thursday (January 14). President-elect Joe Biden's transition team did not comment on the ban. Some WeChat users in North America said their content was subject to political censorship. Some comments and news reposts that would cause discontent in China were blocked. Some Chinese dissidents in exile in the U.S. said they support Trump's blocking order, despite the inconvenience the WeChat ban has caused Chinese immigrants.

The Chinese messaging app WeChat has a strict censorship system. A large number of posts in support of Hong Kong's anti-extradition law have been deleted from its platform over the past two years. The Washington Post reported that WeChat's censorship of user postings has reached into the United States. Some accounts registered in the U.S. have had their posts on the platform blocked by WeChat, preventing their friends from viewing the content.

Source: Apple Daily #Jan09

https://hk.appledaily.com/international/20210109/PHUV2W4CVJH3XMAQPO2QMGTEBY/

#China #US #WeChat #censorship #PoliticalCensorship #CensorshipinUS #WashingtonPost
Regina Ip Criticised APEC having "Unfair Condition" that Beijing has to Decide whether to Attend with this Insult

The #WashingtonPost reported earlier that the #US #DepartmentofState denied #JohnLee to enter the US border for the #APEC summit. Yet, the Hong Kong government can still send other senior officials to participate.

The pro-establishment camp criticised the US's practice with statements and journals yesterday. Among them, #ReginaIp, the convenor of the Executive Council, wrote in #ChinaDaily that the APEC summit has an "unknown future" because of John Lee. She also questioned whether it is worthwhile for the government to send another official to attend if the ban is "harmful and unreasonable". She pointed out that the Chinese "highest leader" should decide whether he should accept "the insult".

Besides, #TaKungPao quoted statements from various politicians in a report, including #MargaretChan from #CPPCC, #KingsleyWong from #HKFTU and #BraveChan from #DAB.

Note:
CPPCC refers to Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
HKFTU refers to Hong Kong Federation of Trade Union
DAB refers to Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong

Source: Inmedia #Aug03

https://tinyurl.com/245traxv