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Hong Kong Internet Group Resists Chinese Censorship

The Reds are clever. They are relentless. Where they hold power they are, as they’ve always been, ruthless in suppressing challenges to it.

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demonstrators n Hong Kong

The People’s Republic of China is no different. It has long operated one of the most sophisticated, thorough, and effective internet censorship systems in the world. The PRC is especially ferocious in attacking the anyone who erects proxies or VPNs to help other citizens bypass the state blockades.

Why can’t Beijing crack down?

The PRC is supreme in its core territories. It faces extreme difficulty, though, in forcing Hong Kong’s web traffic through the state’s firewalls. Consider, for example, what happened when a report began circulating all over East Asia that Beijing was planning to block access to certain websites and online services. The Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association (HKISPA) said it would not and could not comply:

Technically speaking, given the complexity of the modern internet including technologies like VPN, cloud, and cryptographies, it is impossible to effectively and meaningfully block any services, unless we put the whole internet of Hong Kong behind large scale surveillance firewall.

Of course, Beijing could throttle web services in Hong Kong anyway. But it can do so only at the cost of stifling industry. This outcome the state wants to avoid if it can. China already suffers severe economic pain, and will tolerate otherwise intolerable challenges to prevent more.

Of course, it’s impossible to predict how much more Beijing will tolerate. The regime may be nearing its limit.

So far, though, the Hong Hong ISP Association seems undaunted. It continues to remind the regime that it will pay a fearful price for further efforts to suppress internet freedom.

What price will Beijing pay to maintain control of the web?

…Imposing any insensible restrictions on the open internet would only result in more restrictions, as the original restrictions wouldn’t be effective, and ultimately the result is putting Hong Kong’s internet behind a big firewall. Therefore, any such restrictions, however slight initially, would start the end of the open internet of Hong Kong, and would immediately and permanently deter international businesses from positing their businesses and investments in Hong Kong.

This doesn’t mean Beijing is or has been completely passive about the matter. Telegram, an encrypted message service used to coordinate recent mass demonstrations, has suffered a series of massive DDOS attacks. These attacks were almost certainly the state’s handiwork. Still, the Hong Kong ISPs insist they won’t censor Telegram or any other platform.

Beijing has to be careful. The PRC’s economy is already fragile, with growth slowing sharply, and U.S. tariffs are likely to sharpen the pain. A crackdown on internet services in Hong Kong would induce a mass exit of international businesses. China’s economic crisis, severe already, would worsen exponentially.

How will the standoff end? We’ve no idea, but we’re certain to see a great deal of drama before it’s over.

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Zuckerberg in the Hot Seat

Mark Zuckerberg may soon cease to be a Master of the Universe. At least, that’s what we can gather from some of the Congressional reactions to his recent testimony on Capitol Hill.

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The Facebook CEO has been under fire lately over some of the social platform’s questionable business practices. These include blocking or ‘shadow-banning’ content for political reasons, limiting the reach of ads customers had paid for, and selling user data to third parties.

The immediate catalyst for the hearings was a recent report about Facebook’s relationship with Cambridge Analytica. The latter had apparently collected user data through an app called Global Science Research. More than 270,000 people allowed use of their data, but Cambridge was able to collect data about their friends, too. Cambridge used the data to promote Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.

At this news, Congressional Democrats erupted. Of course, it may help to keep matters in perspective. Facebook had also allowed the Obama reelection campaign to exploit user data in 2012- and had not charged for it. Obama campaign officials even bragged about Facebook’s willingness to help them, and Mr. Zuckerberg visited the White House dozens of times between 2009 and 2013.

The legacy press apparently saw no problem with this. Many establishment reporters even hailed Obama for his genius and foresight in use of social media.

The Rules Change

It wasn’t the data collection itself, then, that offended the high and mighty. It wasn’t even the fact that most of it was without user consent. Facebook’s real crime, evidently, was that in 2016 a REPUBLICAN campaign had been able to exploit its user data.

Never mind that Obama’s people had used Facebook data far more extensively- and in the general election, while Cambridge had used it for Trump only during the primary. Never mind that Facebook had been happy- even eager- to help Obama. If Trump benefited, then data collection practices that had hitherto been perfectly acceptable were suddenly grave sins.

Mr. Zuckerberg Goes to Washington

And so, Mark Zuckerberg was required to explain himself to Congress. Democrats flayed him over Cambridge Analytica. Zuckerberg was deeply respectful and promised that he would try very very hard to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

Some Republicans asked about censorship of conservative posts. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) grilled Zuckerberg closely about it. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) asked how Facebook determines what is or isn’t offensive content. In the face of this line of inquiry, the witness dodged and weaved, offering carefully worded and evasive responses.

On the whole, Mr. Zuckerberg proved carefully prepared- and quite slippery. We got the impression that Facebook may never provide a full accounting for its privacy and censorship practices, and that the reforms it promises will only be cosmetic.

 

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