VPN Providers Pull Out of Hong Kong -- WSJ
17 Juillet 2020 - 9:02AM
Dow Jones News
Withdrawal highlights concerns over creeping censorship from
mainland China
By Eva Xiao
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (July 17, 2020).
HONG KONG -- At least three providers of virtual private
networks, which let internet users circumvent censorship and
protect their privacy, are suspending their Hong Kong operations,
citing concerns over Beijing's new national-security law for the
city.
The shift comes after Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google and
other large U.S. technology companies said they would suspend
government requests for user data in Hong Kong because of the law.
The legislation has spooked companies because it compels them to
hand over user data in national-security investigations under
penalty of fines and potential jail time.
Citing the broadly defined powers bestowed on police under the
new law, which include the right to search electronic devices --
without a warrant, in some cases -- the VPN providers said they
felt it was safer to close down their servers and avoid routing
online traffic to Hong Kong.
The national security law endangers "the privacy of our users
and all Hong Kong residents," said Colorado-based Private Internet
Access, which shut down its Hong Kong servers on Tuesday, a day
after TunnelBear of Toronto said it was disabling its servers in
the city.
On Wednesday, IPVanish said that it was decommissioning servers
and suspending operations in the international financial hub. "With
this legislative change, we, unfortunately, have to consider Hong
Kong and China as one," it said.
The impact of removing VPN servers from Hong Kong is likely to
be limited, given that users can connect to other servers in the
region and many VPN providers say they don't save personal
information anyway -- mitigating any breach of privacy if servers
are seized by authorities or hackers.
The withdrawal of the servers, however, shows how widely fear is
spreading over creeping censorship and surveillance from mainland
China. The law empowers police to remove content and collect
information on online messaging, a target of the legislation after
monthslong protests last year that were frequently organized via
social media apps on phones.
Virtual private networks, which let users mask their location by
encrypting and routing their traffic through other countries,
operate servers around the world. In mainland China, where
international sites such as YouTube and Twitter are blocked, VPNs
are often used to circumvent censorship.
Hong Kong officials have repeatedly said the new legislation
won't affect people's basic freedoms. But its passage at the end of
June has already sparked a wave of self-censorship on social media
platforms such as Twitter, where a number of pro-democracy
activists have deactivated or wiped their accounts of protest
content.
Fears of surveillance have also powered a surge in demand for
VPNs, with ProtonVPN of Switzerland reporting a 3,000% increase in
usage from Hong Kong users after the Chinese government announced
plans to impose national security rules on the city at the end of
May. Surfshark, a VPN operator based in the British Virgin Islands,
said it reported over 400% growth in sales after the law came into
effect. Neither company disclosed actual numbers.
Surfshark -- like most of the VPN providers contacted by The
Wall Street Journal -- said it would continue to operate in Hong
Kong, though it would monitor any changes in government policy or
enforcement. A requirement to log user activity, for instance,
would trigger a shutdown of its local servers, said Gabrielle
Racai, communications manager at Surfshark.
"Right now there is nothing indicating that our users are in any
danger, " said Laura Tyrell, a spokeswoman for NordVPN, adding that
the company will react swiftly if it sees risk, citing its shutdown
of servers in Russia last year as an example.
ProtonVPN, which now considers Hong Kong a high-risk region -- a
designation the company applies to Russia and Turkey -- said that
while it is concerned about censorship at the app store-level, it
too will continue to run servers in the finance hub.
"Our worry is that the Hong Kong authorities will begin
demanding the removal of news apps, communications apps and VPNs,"
said a spokesman for ProtonVPN, adding that the company would
challenge moves to compromise its users' privacy or security in
court first, before deciding to pull out of Hong Kong.
"Pre-emptively abandoning Hong Kong to its fate without even a
symbolic resistance sends the wrong message to authoritarian
governments around the world that would seek to deny people their
fundamental rights," he said.
Write to Eva Xiao at eva.xiao@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 17, 2020 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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