Opinion | Western outcry over Hong Kong’s anti-doxxing laws smacks of hypocrisy
- Data privacy is a global concern, with many countries developing legislation to protect individuals’ personal details. Yet, in Hong Kong, such laws are suspected of masking a hidden agenda
However, some in the West are trying to turn this into another sign that Hong Kong is about to be pulled surreptitiously behind China’s “Great Firewall” of internet censorship.
Doxxing refers to obtaining and publishing an individual’s private information online. This can range from the relatively harmless – publishing Trump’s most recent golf scorecard, for instance – to the malicious, such as revealing a government official’s home address, leaving them susceptible to an attack.
I can understand why Western media outlets are suggesting that Hong Kong’s new legislation could be the start of a slippery slope towards mainland-style internet restrictions. China has a complicated relationship with online censorship, which the West has frequently condemned as an authoritarian clampdown on freedom of speech.
This outcry is, at best, an overreaction and, at worst, deeply hypocritical. During the height of the pandemic, as people were being forced into remote working and e-learning, the number of hacking cases rose sharply, sparking discussions in the UK and US around VPN usage. We are more concerned with online security than ever.