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MY BACKGROUND

• Legislative Councillor representing the Information Technology Functional Constituency of the Hong Kong SAR

• Co-founder, Internet Society Hong Kong

• Honorary President, Hong Kong Information Technology Federation

• Former Chairman, Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association

INTERNET IN 2013

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Source: ITU World Telecommunication / ICT Indicators databaseCNNIC, “The 32nd China Internet Development Statistics Report” Jul 2013

40%

of the world’s population

2.7billionUsers worldwide

591 million

Users in China

21.8%

of the world’s internet users

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Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

ONE COUNTRY, TWO SYSTEMS

SPEAKING OF INTERNET IN CHINA WE USUALLY THINK OF THIS…

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INTERNET IN CHINA: A SNAPSHOT

591 million

Internet users

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464 million

Mobile phone Internet users

44.1%

Internet penetration

78% Mobile Internet penetration rate

10-39Age group of main

Internet users

21.7hrsof connection per

week on average

Source: CNNIC, “The 32nd China Internet Development Statistics Report” Jul 2013

HOW THE CHINESE GOVT MANAGES THE INTERNET

NOW

Prof. Li Yonggang： the internet as waterworks (治水 )

Guide more than block7

SEVEN SPEAK-NOT SUBJECTS 七不講 AND ONLINE PUBLIC OPINION CENSORSHIP

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Universal values

Press freedom

Civil society Civil rights

Past mistakes

of the CCP

Crony capitalists

Judicial independe

nce

GFW VS WIKIPEDIA

Blocked 7 times since 2004

Filter and block traffic to sensitive articles

2013: HTTPS encrypted connections blocked

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CHINA’S CENSORSHIP STRATEGY:TECHNOCRATIC MICROMANAGEMENT

• Appear ‘reasonable’ – less high-handed blanket bans

• More nuanced approach:•Censoring before news happens•Message Control•Downplay sensitive news

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NEW APPROACH: A SUBTLE, MIDDLE COURSE

Balance between control and economic growth with free flow of information

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Modulation and fine-tuning carefully selected content

SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT FRIENDLY, LOCAL INTERNET COMPANIES

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NEW INTERNET REGULATIONS IN CHINA

• Real-name system (approved in Dec 2012, fully implement by Jun 2014)

• Draft new Privacy Laws and Draft Internet Privacy Regulations (April 2013)

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Content monitoring, self-censorship and mandatory reporting of ‘state secrets’ and ‘impermissible contents’ for ‘network and

information security reasons’

CENSORSHIP ON MICROBLOG (WEIBO)

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Source: JMSC, HKU

EVADING GFW ON WEIBO

Netizens getting creative: ‘hitting edge balls’ (擦邊球 ) Stay roughly within / skirt around permitted boundary of censors

• using images such as animated GIFs

• Creating new terms to represent / describe politicians or incidents

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HOW DO CHINESE USERS BYPASS THE GFW? BY TAGGING ALONG• Chinese users use tools that the

Chinese government does not want the GFW to blanket block due to economic and commercial interests

• GoAgent, VPNs, HTTPS/SOCKS

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Source: OpenITP, “Collateral Freedom – A Snapshot of Chinese Internet Users Circumventing Censorship”, Apr 2013

POWER OF CROWD AND INFORMATION

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Whistle-blowing on social media

HONG KONG:

A NETW

ORKED

POPU

LATI

ON

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INTERNET USAGE IN HONG KONG: A SNAPSHOT

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Source: Office of Communications Authority, Apr 2013Census and Statistics Dept, HKSAR, May 2013

85.2%Household broadband penetration rate

77.9%

Household with PC and broadband

30hoursAverage time spent on PCs per week

229%Mobile penetration

65.3%Mobile internet penetration

DENSER, MORE COMPLEX, AND MORE PARTICIPATORYLANDSCAPE

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Discussion Forums

Social networking

Online media

IM app

Media sharing

NO CENSORSHIP, BUT IS INTERNET

FREE IN HONG KONG?

• Fast and reliable internet connection

• No censorship or filtering of data traffic

• Article 30 of the Basic Law specifies freedom and privacy of communication of HK residents are protected by law

• Yet certain laws govern the use of Internet

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ALL-PURPOSE COMPUTER CRIME LEGISLATION

Section 161 of the Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 200) (i.e. access to computer with criminal or dishonest intent) that any person who obtains access to a computer:

(a) with intent to commit an offence;(b) with a dishonest intent to deceive;(c) with a view to dishonest gain for himself or another; or(d) with a dishonest intent to cause loss to another,

whether on the same occasion as he obtains such access or on any future occasion, commits an offence.

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EVERYTHING UNDER ONE UMBRELLA?

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Computer system hacking

Cyber attacks

Distributing fake government releases online

Taking and storing "under-skirt" photographs

s.161Access to computer

with criminal or dishonest intent

2008 consultation with proposal to impose mandatory filtering at the level of the ISPs' servers

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PROTECTING THE YOUTH BY FILTERING?

CONTROL OF OBSCENE AND INDECENT ARTICLES ORDINANCE

COPYRIGHT ORDINANCE

AND FREEDOM OF

EXPRESSION

Government consultation in progress: Exemption for

parody, satire and derivative works?

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TELECOMMUNICATIONS ORDINANCE

Sections of Telecommunications Ordinance are against:

- Willful interception of any message

- Damage, remove or interfere with a telecommunications installation to intercept / discover contents of a message

In relation: Personal Data (Privacy Ordinance)

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BUT WHO’S THE BIGGEST ENEMY?

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HONG KONG GOVERNMENT’S INVISIBLE HAND TOWARDS ISP…My question to HK government on user data / content removal requests made by departments and law enforcement agencies to ISPs in the past 3 years revealed…

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>14,000User data requests

7,000Content removal

requests

Many were made with no

court order

MORE OPENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY, BETTER INTERNET REGULATION

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The public has the right to know how government actions

affect their privacy and free flow of information

HONG KONG TRANSPARENCY REPORT

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Gathering, analysing

and publishing legally available data on government

user data and content removal requests

State of transparenc

y between the Hong Kong Govt and technology

and telecommunication

s companies

Protecting the fundamental

freedoms of netizens

4PM TODAY - DISCUSSION ON TRANSPARENCY REPORT

http://transparency.jmsc.hku.hk/ 

Presentation on Hong Kong’s first Transparency ReportPanel discussion:

• Ying Chan, Director, JMSC, Hong Kong University

• Lokman Tsui, Head of Free Expression, Asia Pacific, Google

• Andrew Lih, USC Professor and author of The Wikipedia Revolution

• Ot van Daalen, Bits of Freedom

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Where: PQ304, PolyU

ONE INTERNET, MANY SYSTEMS?

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IMAGE CREDIT

http://www.aqualegion.com/wp-content/uploads/Water-droplet-image-Water-sampling-and-water-testing-in-London-copy.jpg

http://www.elitee2.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Surveillance.jpg

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/greatspeculations/files/2012/02/magnifying-glass2.jpg

http://codeandreload.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/photography_shadow-hand_eclipse_9774.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/China-outline.svg\

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Hong_Kong_Outline_Map.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Wikipedia-logo-en-big.png

http://img.sharpdaily.com.hk/rtn/20130729/large/1375098101_38e5.jpg

http://mappingourworlds.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/internet.jpg

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THANK YO

U!

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Charles MokLegislative Councillor

(Information Technology)

charles@charlesmok.hkwww.charlesmok.hk

Facebook: Charles Mok B

Twitter: @charlesmok