The social network said it would review the city’s punitive new national security law, a rare public questioning of Chinese policy by a large American tech company.
Facebook said on Monday that it would temporarily stop processing Hong Kong government requests for user data as the company reviews a sweeping national security law that has chilled political expression in the city.
The social network’s assessment of the law, which has already been used to arrest people who have called for Hong Kong independence, would include human rights considerations, the company said.
The Facebook decision is a rare public questioning of Chinese policy by a large American internet company, and it raises questions about how the security law will be applied online in Hong Kong, where the internet is not censored as it is in the rest of China. Although the social network may ultimately decide to cooperate with some forms of the law, the expression of uncertainty alone is likely to raise hackles in Beijing.
Facebook’s move will also probably put pressure on other American tech giants like Apple and Google, which have not yet clarified how they intend to deal with data requests related to the national security law.
