News Analysis Robert Clark 1/14/2021
Hong Kong telcos have reached a milestone for the first time they are blocking a website on security grounds.
The order to limit access to a local website that documents police abuses was made under the contentious National Security Law (NSL), introduced on July 1.
HKBN, the biggest home broadband provider, today became the first to confirm it had blocked access to the HK Chronicles website at police instruction.
Police will not confirm whether they have invoked the security law against the website or give reasons why.
The blocking of HK Chronicles became known last week when editor Naomi Chan advised last week that it had become inaccessible to many visitors.
Hong Kong Democracy Website Experiences Temporary Blockage From Hong Kong ISPs
Website now returning 404 not found errors
A website “dedicated to exposing people supporting tyranny and dictatorship in Hong Kong” started receiving reports overnight on Jan. 6 that Hong Kong users were unable to access the site.
Hong Kong Chronicles is a primarily Cantonese site that has been collating a database of information related to the Hong Kong protests, such as incidents of police brutality and the profiles of those allegedly complicit.
In an announcement made on Jan. 7, the site’s chief editor and operator Naomi Chan clarified that the site was not blocking users and had no plan of doing so.
Reuters Mass arrests in Hong Kong and independent journalists imprisoned in Vietnam
A website dedicated to publishing first-hand accounts of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement has warned its users to prepare for large-scale internet blocks, filters, and censorship in future, in the first indication that China may be exporting its Great Firewall to the city under a draconian national security law that took effect on July 1.
The HKChronicles website started receiving reports from users based in Hong Kong that they were no longer able to access the site late on Jan. 6, the site s founder and chief editor Naomi Chan said in a statement.