Hong Kong assures that its security law will not block social networks

The government of Hong Kong He assured this Wednesday that the new national security law he is preparing will not block the use of social networks in this semi-autonomous territory of China.

Unlike mainland China, where numerous foreign social networks are blocked, users in this international financial center can access applications such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook or X.

But in a public consultation process for the development of a new national security law in this territory, some participants advocated vetoing the use of Facebook or YouTube or banning messaging applications such as Telegram or Signal.

“I can state with certainty that we have absolutely no intention of banning any social media.””Declared Justice Minister Paul Lam at a meeting of the city’s legislative council.

“What we are pursuing is the abuse or misuse of these tools to spread statements that may endanger national security (…) We are not pursuing social media itself,” he added.

Hong Kong Since 2020, it has had a national security law imposed from Beijing in response to the massive pro-democracy protests of the previous year, which has crushed all types of dissent in this city.

The Hong Kong government will present its own bill next week that will complete the existing one and include crimes such as treason, espionage or insurrection.

Press associations, defense organizations human rightsforeign companies and diplomats fear that this new law will further restrict freedom of expression.

Since the 2020 law, technology giants such as Google or Meta found themselves in trouble in Hong Kong when they rejected the government’s demands to remove some content from their platforms.

For example, the authorities asked Google and YouTube to remove the song “Glory to Hong Kong” from their search engines, which was the anthem of the 2019 protests.