Facebook and its messaging service WhatsApp announced on Monday, 6 July 2020 they would no longer to requests for information about their users from the government and the authorities of hong Kong in an effort to uphold freedom of expression. “We suspend the consideration of the requests of the government regarding the users’ data in hong Kong pending a more in-depth assessment of the national security act, ” said a spokesman for Facebook.
The evaluation will provide a ” rigorous examination and consultations with international experts on human rights on the situation of the island in the area. “We believe that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and support the right of people to express themselves without fear for their safety and without fear of other repercussions,” said this source. The social network explains that it has a procedure global to respond to the requests of governments. The review of each application and takes into account both the internal policy of Facebook, local laws and international standards concerning human rights.
Read also In the streets of hong Kong : “China is a monster, wake up ! “
privacy has never been as important as now.
The communist regime of Beijing has imposed on hong Kong a text in an attempt to suppress subversion, secession, terrorism and the collusion with the foreign forces, in response to the protest movement launched last year against the central power in the former british colony. The text is very controversial, because it violates, according to its critics, the principle of “One country-two systems” is supposed to guarantee the former british colony’s freedoms unknown elsewhere in China.
For its part, WhatsApp points out that ” people have the right to have a private conversation online “. It recalls that its end to end encryption protects the daily messages of up to 2 billion people in the world. “Privacy has never been as important as now, and we remain committed to providing services of the secure private email to our users in hong Kong,” added a spokesman.
Read also Beijing pulls out its national security law to quell hong Kong
