Hong Kong authorities consider banning Telegram
Hong Kong authorities are discussing the possibility of restricting access to Telegram and a number of other platforms by providing access to personal data of government officials and others.
It is noted that Ade Chung Lai-ling, the Personal Data Privacy Commissioner for Autonomy, is considering the possibility of restricting access to Telegram due to the popularity of official doxing in it – searching and publishing personal or confidential information without a person’s consent.
It is known that in Hong Kong since 2021 defamation has become a criminal offense and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of one million Hong Kong dollars.
Bloomberg wrote that in the event of a ban on the messenger, Hong Kong would approach Chinese-type internet censorship.
It is noteworthy that the new bans became known a few days after the appointment of the new pro-Beijing autonomy leader, Jun Lee.
Telegram was particularly popular among Hong Kong protesters in 2019.
In 2019, Telegram’s creator, Pavel Durov, spoke of a massive cyber attack on the app from China. The incident led to the hypothesis that Beijing was trying to disrupt the protests in Hong Kong in this way.
