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Author: Yan Shu-ki, Special journalist in Hong Kong
Since the introduction of the hong kong national security law on july 1st, u.s. multinational companies such as fb, twitter and google (Google) have temporarily refused to submit user information to the hong kong government for an assessment of the new law. However, according to Financial Times analysis, these companies are now a stopgap measure that makes it difficult to absolve law of their responsibilities and may withdraw their servers from hong kong under unpredictable conditions in hong kong, but ultimately the site may be blocked in hong kong.
Apple, another U.S. technology giant, said it was also assessing whether the new law in Hong Kong needed to reorient its customer data confidentiality policy. The company said on its official website that under an agreement between the United States and Hong Kong, Hong Kong's government must obtain the approval and approval of the U.S. Department of Justice requesting information from Apple users in Hong Kong.
While Facebook, Twitter 、 Google, Zoom and Microsoft's LinkedIn (LinkedIn) have all "suspended" processing of government requests, the firms have to judge how much leeway they have, Financial Times said. The report quoted huang yuyi, a senior hong kong lawer, as saying the suspension could not absolve companies of law responsibility because it was not a legal explanation but a corporate policy.
The report also quoted Paul Haswell, a hong kong-based partner of Pinsent Masons lawer firm, as saying it was harder for internet service providers to refuse requests than foreign technology companies. He predicted that tech giants might move servers out of hong kong but eventually their websites could be blocked. The report said Google, Amazon Web Services (Amazon Web Services) and Microsoft all have data centers in Hong Kong, while Twitter and Facebook do not have local data centers.
According to the Hong Kong District National Security Law, if a company refuses to ask the police to delete a social media post, the police may confiscate the Hong Kong server where the information is stored; if the server is overseas, the police may also also request an Internet provider (ISP) connecting Hong Kong to the Internet in other regions to prevent access to the website in question.
Financial Times reported that in the past, the hong kong police have also requested information from companies to help investigate cases, companies can publicly disclose the number of cases, such as face-to-face letters received 384 requests last year, and met nearly half. However, under the Hong Kong National Security Law, the company may later be banned from disclosing any information.
The report said there were no major technology companies expressing their views on Hong Kong's business prospects. While Facebook and Microsoft have offices in Hong Kong, the two companies also have offices in other parts of Asia, such as Singapore, and can move their businesses if necessary. While many internet companies also have offices in hong kong, none of them are based in hong kong. Moreover, according to marketing We Are Social, the hong kong market accounts for less than 0.3% of the world's customers for LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
Hong Kong's Hong Kong National Security Law covers non-Hong Kong people, but technology companies are also required to comply with the laws of other overseas countries, including the EU General Data Protection Code. Fang Baoqiao also said that the operation mode of data center is more like "layer by layer ", cloud service providers rent data center to process and store customer data, how to extract data is more difficult.
