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Millions Losing Access to Internet
Millions losing access to internet:
Millions of people look set to lose access to the free and open internet as China’s control over Hong Kong increases.
A new law was ushered in by Beijing last month that gave China sweeping powers over opposition against itself, both within its borders and outside of them, which could put people in jail for years if they commit vaguely defined political crimes.
The controversial national security law was used to make arrests within hours.
[...] Hong Kong police now have sweeping powers to order social media platforms and publishers to remove content, as well as ban the platforms altogether.
Undefined “exceptional circumstances” also give police the right to seize and search electronic devices.
A number of tech companies including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Zoom have said they’re pausing the review of law enforcement requests for data or stopping it altogether while they assess the impact of the new law.
[...] Tech companies and many others have been balancing a desire to uphold support for Hong Kong independence during recent protests with the desire to avoid annoying the Chinese government and losing access to its market of 1.4 billion, increasingly upwardly mobile citizens.
Hong Kong Downloads of Signal Surge as Residents Fear Crackdown
Hong Kong downloads of Signal surge as residents fear crackdown:
The secure chat app Signal has become the most downloaded app in Hong Kong on both Apple's and Google's app stores, Bloomberg reports, citing data from App Annie. The surging interest in encrypted messaging comes days after the Chinese government in Beijing passed a new national security law that reduced Hong Kong's autonomy and could undermine its traditionally strong protections for civil liberties.
The 1997 handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China came with a promise that China would respect Hong Kong's autonomy for 50 years following the handover. Under the terms of that deal, Hong Kong residents should have continued to enjoy greater freedom than people on the mainland until 2047. But recently, the mainland government has appeared to renege on that deal.
[...] The New York Times reports that "the four major offenses in the law—separatism, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign countries—are ambiguously worded and give the authorities extensive power to target activists who criticize the party, activists say." Until now, Hong Kongers faced trial in the city's separate, independent judiciary. The new law opens the door for dissidents to be tried in mainland courts with less respect for civil liberties or due process.
This has driven heightened interest among Hong Kongers in secure communication technologies. Signal offers end-to-end encryption and is viewed by security experts as the gold standard for secure mobile messaging. It has been endorsed by NSA whistleblower Ed Snowden.
[...] Bloomberg has also reported on the surging adoption of VPN software in Hong Kong as residents fear government surveillance of their Web browsing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 09 2020, @04:56PM (8 children)
Isn't HKEX one of the biggest stock exchanges in the world?
I am most worried about whether the Chinese government can keep its dick out of that particular pie. As much as civil rights are an issue, there is also a huge issue with the divestiture and routing of cash from the HK exchange. Money will/is moving out of asia.
The effect on Chinese domestic trade is likely to be devistating. The are effectively cutting themselves off from foreign currency sources. That never ends well.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Thursday July 09 2020, @05:01PM (5 children)
Fuck the Chinese economy, fuck the HK stock exchange! Who the hell cares about that in comparison to what the people have just lost? A free, democratic people has just lost their rights and their voices. That has got to be extremely painful for them, because unlike mainland China, the HK people are painfully cognizant of the magnitude of what they just lost.
I say, let the Chinese economy burn in white-hot hellfire! May China suffer deeply for what they've just done to HK.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday July 09 2020, @05:21PM (2 children)
May Gerbilius grant them a place in heaven [soylentnews.org] and a soft gerbil up their ass. [soylentnews.org]
Be honest; that's all we, the Soylentils, can do for them; driving ourselves in impotent rages will achieve nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Thursday July 09 2020, @05:25PM
Raising a stink is a great idea right now. Be as pissed off as possible, bitch about it as much as possible, drum up public anger towards China. That can only harm China, so, we *can* do that for HK.
Praise Gerbilius.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Thursday July 09 2020, @08:51PM
Well, I think we could do things like setup wireguard servers, but I'm not so sure about translations and setting up payment portals. Okay, perhaps payment portal is already solved, but I'm not going to be arsed to (1) maintain anything and (2) keep up with currency laws enabling payment for Chinese/HK users on US/EU/Not-Chinese servers.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday July 09 2020, @05:36PM
Are you using that word as an adjective, or as a transitive verb? If the latter, maybe this would be a place to start [reddit.com]. It's gotta begin somewhere, and hopefully not on a smoking warship in the South China sea?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 10 2020, @01:22AM
You are much too passionate on the subject. Calm down, sit back, and think a few moments. The UK sold these people out almost thirty years ago. All of the world's powers understood that, when it happened. Everyone knew that the iron fist would be put to use, sooner or later. Big deal - it's a little sooner than the common folk expected. Still, no one is going to even think about rescuing Hong Kong from China's iron fist. It was a done deal, in the '90's. The '20's is far, far too late to be changing minds.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday July 09 2020, @05:13PM (1 child)
On the contrary, they will fuck it as hard as possible.
You want to trade on Chinese stocks, you use the Shanghai or Shenzhen stock exchanges.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by quietus on Thursday July 09 2020, @06:54PM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you cannot do that as a foreign investor -- if you want to put money on a Chinese play, you've got to go through Hong Kong, or a local intermediary. Some in the City and the UK gov't thought they could pick a part of that business; but that was before covid and the turn in sentiment against China.