Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

In Hong Kong, protesters fight to stay anonymous

In Hong Kong, protesters fight to stay anonymous

The democracy movement finds strength in numbers but weakness in names.
For five months, images of Hong Kong’s leaderless protests have flooded out of the city and into the rest of the world. With police now treating every protest as an illegal assembly, anyone found in the streets can be found guilty under colonial-era public assembly laws. It’s impossible to arrest the entire crowd, but if you’re identified on camera, you can be singled out for punishment. More than 2,000 people have been arrested so far, and a parallel extrajudicial crackdown has targeted countless others with violence, doxxing, and online harassment. It’s led to a new struggle over how and when protesters can be identified - and what they can do to stay anonymous.

That struggle over anonymity extends to some of the movement’s most famous figures. On August 11th, a young woman was shot in the face with a “beanbag” round, breaking through her goggles and blinding her. To protect both her body and anonymity she wore a gas mask, black balaclava, and helmet with “do not aim at protester’s heads” written on it. (Her goggles were left on the street with the bloodied projectile still lodged in them.) After releasing a video thanking her supporters and expressing a desire to remain anonymous, police began searching medical records to identify her until her lawyers successfully got an injunction protecting her privacy.

As she fought to stay anonymous, her notoriety also gave her power. Hongkongers learned almost instantly about her injury because it was broadcast on live streams, one of the subtle but important differences in how technology has changed since the 2014 Umbrella Movement. Whereas only Sony phones could live stream in 2014, today, we have a GitHub page compiling up to nine different live streams and even live stream translations of those live streams. Her injury fueled the #EyeForHongKong hashtag, and an “eye for an eye” slogan, which was shouted the following weekend at the city’s airport.

Facing up to 10-year jail sentences if caught, frontline protesters conceal themselves with umbrellas, masks, balaclavas, and protective headgear, so that not even friends or family could identify them from a photo. Sometimes, protestors go after the cameras directly to protect their identities: more than 900 CCTV cameras have been destroyed since July. When protesters stormed the Legislative Council building on July 1st, the first move was to destroy its cameras, followed by a rush to the security room to destroy the system where the footage was stored.

After masks, umbrellas are the most common tool used to hide from cameras, usually coming out after police raise their warning flags. (Not leaving after the first warning flag goes up carries up to a one-year sentence for unlawful assembly if caught on the scene or identified later.) It is common to see three to four people holding umbrellas, often one in each hand, for every person spray-painting revolutionary slogans or preparing a Molotov cocktail on the street.

The recent mask ban has raised the stakes even further. Protesters find safety in numbers, so police try to thin out crowds with gas and rubber bullets before charging to grab as many people as they can. Most of the people detained are held for 48 hours before being released on bond. Before the ban, a large portion of the people arrested would be released without charges, depending on whether police could spot them in pictures or video. But with masks worn by almost every participant, most protestors can now be charged on the spot, leading to record-breaking arrest numbers in recent protests.

There are plenty of other ways for government-friendly forces to strike back. The organizer of the two massive marches in June has been attacked twice now, most recently by a group that bludgeoned him with hammers. An activist I know took their family into hiding for several weeks this summer after being followed in town, receiving death threats, and having our own district counselor share conspiracy theories about him on Facebook. Two acquaintances have been doxxed on a website dedicated to outing the personal details of activists, journalists, politicians, and anyone else associated with Hong Kong’s “Revolution of Our Time.” A police officer knocked on one of their doors to make clear he knew where they lived. Their child’s face appeared in a video posted by Chinese state media, which has also encouraged doxxing and solicited contributions from the public. All three say there were personal details released that could only have come from the Hong Kong government.

Even protestors who make it home without being arrested aren’t necessarily safe. Hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers will face a future of unknown retaliation for participating in the movement, supporting it online, or refusing to condemn it. The risks range from personal and family safety to job insecurity to fear of future arrest. The Hong Kong Police Force has shown an unnerving dedication to the task of arresting people on the streets, finding evidence for those already arrested, and piecing together evidence on people who thought they got home safely.

The same fear of identification extends to the digital space. Protesters have begun locking their accounts or adopting pseudonyms after years of using their real names. Government workers, teachers, or employees at a pro-government company could easily be fired if the “wrong” person finds evidence of participation or pro-protest posts. A string of comments in a private Facebook group led to Cathay Pacific employees getting fired. A lawyer in training nearly had his legal career derailed when his employer reported an anti-police post on Facebook to the High Court.

Faced with that harassment, the sheer volume of digital records can be overwhelming. You can take down a camera but not the dozens of live streams keeping the protests in the public eye. Masks can block facial recognition, but they can’t erase years of social media posting and cross-linked accounts. The people who built these networks didn’t think about how they might work in countries where public assembly can be criminalized or a connected online identity can be grounds for arrest. Now, some protesters are realizing too late that their digital footprint is hard to erase.
AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Druzhba Pipeline Incident Sparks Geopolitical Tensions
Cost of Opposition Leader Péter Magyar's Economic Plan Revealed
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
Budapest Central European Fashion Week Kicks Off
U.S. Celebrates Labor Day
Hungarian National Team Captain Scores Epic Goal
EU is getting aggressive: Four AfD Candidates Die Unexpectedly Ahead of North Rhine-Westphalia Local Elections
Japanese Customer Sways from VW to BYD after “Unbelievable” Test Drive amid Dealership Expansion
Nestlé Removes CEO Laurent Freixe Following Undisclosed Relationship with Subordinate
Pickles are the latest craze among Generation Z in the United States.
Giuliani Seriously Injured in Accident – Trump to Award Him the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Deadline Day Delivers Record £125m Isak Move and Donnarumma to City
Nvidia Reveals: Two Mystery Customers Account for About 40% of Revenue
×