Experts have warned that a contentious law that came into effect in Hong Kong in October will be used to punish opposition figures for revealing personal information about police and authorities, a media report said.
The law criminalises online behaviour that involves unauthorised disclosure of personal data -- including names, identity card numbers, phone numbers, photos and addresses -- even if the disclosure does not cause harm. Its aim, the government said is to "combat malicious doxxing acts that have become more rampant in recent years, so as to protect the personal data privacy of the general public", reported Voice of America (VOA)
Whosoever violated the law will be subject to fines of as much as USD 13,000 and five years' imprisonment.
Slamming the law for its "unduly severe" penalities, professor of social science at the University of California Berkeley, Lowell Dittmer said that law has added to the repressive armoury of the national security law with a measure disguised as protection of human dignity, according to VOA.
Calling the law an overreaction of the government, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Washington, Dongsheng Zang, stated that the ordinance was enacted in the name of protecting privacy; but it may end up encroaching more people's privacy, due to the broad powers granted to the Privacy Commissioner.
The industry associations have also raised concerns over the doxxing measure.
The Asia Internet Coalition in July had stated, "Subjecting intermediaries and their local subsidiaries to criminal investigations and prosecution for doxxing offences under the proposed amendments is a completely disproportionate and unnecessary response to doxxing."
( With inputs from ANI )
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