On Tech: Internet powers collide in Hong Kong
My colleague Paul Mozur wrote about Facebook, Google, Facebook-owned WhatsApp, Twitter and some other digital companies saying they would temporarily stop handing over people s information when the Hong Kong authorities ask for it.
The companies were responding to a vaguely worded new law that civil liberties advocates worry would extend China s internet censorship and digital surveillance to Hong Kong, which has long been a bastion of online freedom. If companies go along with the new law, the fear is that someone in Hong Kong could be jailed for a tweet. If they don t comply, their employees could go to jail.
Saying no to the law could force those internet companies to shut down service in Hong Kong. It would also be a public defiance of China s government that we rarely see from global companies. No one knows what happens next.