2. 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

3. INTERNET IN 2013
3
Source:
ITU World Telecommunication / ICT Indicators database
CNNIC, “The 32nd China Internet Development Statistics Report”
Jul 2013
40%
of the world‟s
population
2.7billion
Users worldwide
591million
Users in China
21.8%
of the world‟s
internet users

4. 4
Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region
ONE COUNTRY, TWO SYSTEMS

5. SPEAKING OF INTERNET IN CHINA
WE USUALLY THINK OF THIS…
5

6. INTERNET IN CHINA: A SNAPSHOT
591million
Internet users
6
464million
Mobile phone
Internet users
44.1%
Internet
penetration
78%
Mobile Internet
penetration rate
10-39
Age group of main
Internet users
21.7hrs
of connection per week
on average
Source: CNNIC, “The 32nd China Internet Development
Statistics Report” Jul 2013

7. HOW THE CHINESE GOVT
MANAGES THE INTERNET NOW
Prof. Li Yonggang：the internet as waterworks (治水)
Guide more than block
7

8. SEVEN SPEAK-NOT SUBJECTS 七不講
AND ONLINE PUBLIC OPINION
CENSORSHIP
8
Universal
values
Press freedom Civil society Civil rights
Past mistakes
of the CCP
Crony
capitalists
Judicial
independence

9. GFW VS WIKIPEDIA
Blocked 7 times since 2004
Filter and block traffic to
sensitive articles
2013: HTTPS encrypted
connections blocked
9

10. 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
10

11. NEW APPROACH:
A SUBTLE, MIDDLE
COURSE
Balance between
control and
economic growth
with free flow of
information
11
Modulation and fine-tuning
carefully selected content

12. SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT FRIENDLY,
LOCAL INTERNET COMPANIES
12

13. 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)
13
Content monitoring, self-censorship and mandatory
reporting of „state secrets‟ and „impermissible
contents‟ for „network and information security
reasons‟

14. CENSORSHIP ON MICROBLOG (WEIBO)
14
Source: JMSC, HKU

15. 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
15

16. 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
16
Source: OpenITP, “Collateral Freedom – A Snapshot of Chinese
Internet Users Circumventing Censorship”, Apr 2013

17. POWER OF CROWD AND INFORMATION
17
Whistle-blowing on
social media

18. 18

19. INTERNET USAGE IN HONG KONG: A
SNAPSHOT
19
Source:
Office of Communications Authority, Apr 2013
Census and Statistics Dept, HKSAR, May 2013
85.2%
Household
broadband
penetration rate
77.9%
Household with
PC and
broadband
30hours
Average time
spent on PCs per
week
229%
Mobile
penetration
65.3%
Mobile internet
penetration

20. DENSER, MORE COMPLEX, AND
MORE PARTICIPATORY
LANDSCAPE
20
Discussion Forums
Social networking
Online media
IM app
Media sharing

21. 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
21

22. 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.
22

23. EVERYTHING UNDER ONE UMBRELLA?
23
Computer system
hacking
Cyber attacks
Distributing fake
government releases
online
Taking and storing
"under-skirt" photographs
s.161
Access to computer
with criminal or
dishonest intent

24. 2008 consultation with proposal
to impose mandatory filtering at
the level of the ISPs' servers
24
PROTECTING THE
YOUTH BY
FILTERING?
CONTROL OF
OBSCENE AND
INDECENT ARTICLES
ORDINANCE

25. COPYRIGHT
ORDINANCE AND
FREEDOM OF
EXPRESSION
Government consultation in
progress: Exemption for
parody, satire and
derivative works?
25

26. 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)
26

27. BUT WHO‟S THE BIGGEST ENEMY?
27

28. 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…
28
>14,000
User data requests
7,000
Content removal
requests
Many were made
with no court
order

29. MORE OPENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY,
BETTER INTERNET REGULATION
29
The public has the right to
know how government actions
affect their privacy and free
flow of information

30. HONG KONG TRANSPARENCY REPORT
30
Gathering, analysing and
publishing legally available data on
government user data and
content removal requests
State of
transparency
between the Hong
Kong Govt and
technology and
telecommunications
companies Protecting
the fundamental
freedomsof
netizens

31. 4PM TODAY - DISCUSSION ON
TRANSPARENCY REPORT
http://transparency.jmsc.hku.hk/
Presentation on Hong Kong‟s first Transparency Report
Panel 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
31
Where: PQ304, PolyU

32. ONE INTERNET, MANY SYSTEMS?
32

33. 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
33

34. 34
Charles Mok
Legislative Councillor
(Information Technology)
charles@charlesmok.hk
www.charlesmok.hk
Facebook: Charles Mok B
Twitter: @charlesmok