Google, Facebook, Twitter halt govt data requests after Hong Kong security law

Most of the major U.S. tech companies that handle user data provide transparency reports that include aggregate statistics on the number of user information requests they receive and respond to, per-country:

- https://transparencyreport.google.com/user-data/overview

- https://transparency.facebook.com/government-data-requests

- https://transparency.twitter.com/en/information-requests.htm...

You want companies to pick and choose which laws to follow based on how those laws might change in the future?

You think that social media and Google haven't been helpful to the protestors?

> So had they been complying with govt data requests from Hong Kong up until 5 days ago? I have no idea what China's policies on ex post facto laws are but does this mean there are political dissenters in Hong Kong who will likely be punished for this new security law based on info given to them from these companies just 2 weeks ago?

Probably.

> Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely grateful these companies are taking this stand.

I'm not, their business model revolves on data aggregation, it may no longer openly do so for the CCP but the 5 Eyes Nations still has a massive trove of data on each and every one of us. What should be held in poor regard is the business model, and the apparatus that supports it; getting elated at this news undermines that the US wants Assange and Snowden, and held Chelsea in jail that drove her to near-suicide several times.

> I wish these companies would have been more proactive about doing something to support the people of Hong Kong because this is literally the first news I think I've seen, in the entire 1.5 years of the ongoing protests, where a major US company actually did something to help them.

That was never going to happen, short of over-hauling its leaky, and meta-data dragnet apparatus, HKers have moved to Telegram/Signal and DDG where ever possible. Which is why they've done this recently [1].

What we really need is to build a New Internet that doesn't deviate from its true decentralized nature.

Also, the protests have been ongoing since since 2014, arguably 2013 when Suffrage was being denied in unfair elections as they were hand-picked by the CCP; just like Carrie Lam and her cabinet is. They may have paused the massive street demos, but lots of things were happening in other aspects preparing for the inevitable. Hong Kong isn't that city, although I'm partial to Kowloon Walled City and what it represented in the period between British occupation and Chinese handover, it's the People. I just wish their transition to Taiwan and UK are reasonable one's as many are highly educated English speakers and would be a strong asset to their Economy. The US is considering giving them priority as refugee status, too [2].

The CCP needs to tried for not just illegal annexation and violating the Handover terms, it was supposed to remain autonomous for 50 years, but also for Crimes Against Humanity for the way they strong armed their way into Hong Kong with COVID. Now that Swine Flu and the cases of the Bubonic Plague are being discovered in Mongolia we have no time to screw around with another pandemic.

1: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qj4k95/hong-kong-resident...

2: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/senators-propose-giv...