US tech giants Facebook Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Twitter Inc have privately warned the Hong Kong authorities that they may cease providing their companies within the metropolis if authorities proceed with deliberate modifications to data-protection legal guidelines, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing a letter.
The legal guidelines might make the tech corporations accountable for the malicious sharing of people’ data on-line, the newspaper added.
A letter despatched by an trade group that features the web companies stated corporations are involved that the deliberate guidelines to handle “doxing” might put their employees liable to prison investigations or prosecutions associated to what the companies’ customers submit on-line, Journal reported.
Doxing is an act of unveiling individuals’s private data resembling actual title, residence tackle or office on-line with out the consumer’s permission.
Facebook, Google and Twitter didn’t instantly reply to Reuters’ requests for a remark.
Hong Kong’s Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau in May proposed amendments to the town’s data-protection legal guidelines that it stated had been wanted to fight doxing, a follow that was prevalent throughout 2019 protests within the metropolis, the newspaper stated.
According to the newspaper, the letter dated June 25 was despatched by Singapore-based Asia Internet Coalition.
“The only way to avoid these sanctions for technology companies would be to refrain from investing and offering the services in Hong Kong,” the Journal reported, quoting the letter.
