London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

National security law: social media giants refusing to cooperate with Hong Kong police may have to make exit plans, analysts say

Worst-case scenarios could see sites like Google or Facebook blocked in Hong Kong, while the city’s politicised status could see them pressured from two sidesใ But government says there is ‘nothing unique’ about new security law’s demands, arguing many jurisdictions have comparable legislation

Social media giants’ reluctance to hand over user data to Hong Kong police in national security cases could prompt the government to block their sites in a worst-case scenario or see them relocate, analysts warned, as the firms presented, for now, a united front against such requests.

Following announcements from Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Telegram and LinkedIn that they were hitting pause on processing law enforcement requests for user data, TikTok, the popular short video app, said it would pull out of Hong Kong’s Apple and Google app stores within days.

TikTok, which said it made the decision “in light of recent events”, is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, the world’s most valuable start-up. Last August, the app reported having 150,000 users in Hong Kong.

Zhang Nan, chief executive of ByteDance China, on Tuesday said TikTok’s Chinese version, Douyin, would continue to provide services to Hong Kong users.

While the company currently has no plan to make the service available in Hong Kong app stores, Douyin has local users who have downloaded it from mainland China, according to a person familiar with the matter.

But while the other social media giants have said they would not currently process police requests as they assess the sweeping new national security law, they have not disclosed how they plan to deal with the situation long-term. It remained unclear if Hong Kong police had already made such requests since the law’s June 30 enactment.

Analysts who spoke to the Post said internet companies with offices in Hong Kong may decide to relocate if they decide the risk for their employees in the city is too high.

Even firms without offices or servers in Hong Kong that refuse to cooperate with police risk getting their representatives in trouble should they visit the city, according to barrister Anson Wong Yu-tat.

“There is such a risk,” Wong said on Tuesday.



New implementation regulations for the law unveiled on Monday say it applies “whether or not the identification record or decryption key” central to a particular national security case is located in Hong Kong.

Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, said that given how politicised Hong Kong had become, Facebook risked being criticised at home if it did not publicly say it would resist police requests.

“I think a lot of companies like Facebook have a decision to make. Is it better to upset the Hong Kong police and the government, or is it better to upset their home market in the US? So maybe it is better for them to leave Hong Kong completely,” he said.

Rein said there was a “real risk” that the legal representatives of these companies could go to jail or be fined if they did not follow the law, leaving tech giants stuck in a “very difficult and dangerous situation”.

“I think you’ve reached the point where the ‘Great Firewall’ has come to Hong Kong. And we’re in very new territory right now... people don’t know what they’re allowed to do and what they’re allowed to do neither do companies know,” he said.

Under the sweeping national security law, police no longer require a warrant from a magistrate to ask internet companies to hand over user data if there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect that, for example, a delay caused by the warrant application might defeat the purpose of obtaining the data.

The police also have the power to compel internet companies to take down information on the internet. The maximum penalty for non-compliance is a fine of HK$100,000 (US$13,000) and six months in jail.

Google, Facebook and LinkedIn have offices in the city, while Twitter and Telegram do not.

“When the law took effect, we paused production on any new data requests from Hong Kong authorities, and we’ll continue to review the details of the new law,” Google replied in a statement that did not address questions regarding the potential for a Hong Kong exit.

Facebook also offered no new comment on Tuesday when asked if they might move their office out of the city.

In response to the tech giants’ latest moves, a Hong Kong government spokesman on Tuesday said many other jurisdictions in the world have laws of a similar nature that regulate online messages for national security or the public interest in general.

“The new requirement in Hong Kong is comparable in nature and indeed not unique,” he said.

Asked about the social media giants’ declaration they would not assist police for the time being, Zhao Lijian, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, stressed on Tuesday that the fundamental interests of Hongkongers would be better protected thanks to the security law.

“When the time comes, the horse will run more joyfully, the stock market will be more dynamic, and the dance will be better. We are full of confidence in the future of Hong Kong. Regarding the specific questions you mentioned, I think time will bring us the final answer,” he said from Beijing.


Hong Kong national security law official English-language version

But Hong Kong IT-sector lawmaker Charles Mok said he believed representatives of overseas internet firms would start weighing whether it was even safe to enter Hong Kong.

“They will be worried and start asking themselves if they will be arrested, even if they are just in transit through Hong Kong,” he said.

Firms that have offices in the city may assess whether it is safe to keep a presence here, he said, now that “there is a knife hanging over their heads”.

In the worst-case scenario, the government could request “geo-blocking” so that certain content or sites cannot be accessed in Hong Kong, Mok said, though whether this was technically possible was a different matter.

“If that happens, Hong Kong will become like Shenzhen,” he added.

Alex Capri, a Singapore-based research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation, said because tech companies such as Facebook and Google are already not operating in mainland China, quitting Hong Kong would not be a big loss for them.

Facebook and Twitter have such huge markets worldwide. They can afford to lose Hong Kong as a market. It’s a small market,” he said. “But it’s a really important statement that they’re making here [that they value privacy].”

Francis Fong Po-kiu, honorary president of the Information Technology Federation, said he believed the government would only ask local internet service providers to block access to certain sites if it were an extreme situation.

“I don’t think we’ve come to that stage just yet,” he said

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US was considering taking action against Chinese social media apps such as TikTok over privacy issues and potential national security risks.




Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×