It is understood that the Hong Kong government discovered that through the Telegram group, the police force, Legislative Council members, government officials and other persons and their families have been distributing illegal "bottom" messages. Since February this year, there has been a resurgence.
The bigger problem is that, in recent months, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data has repeatedly requested Telegram to delete the information about the violation of the "starting limit", but it has continued to receive no positive response.
According to sources, if Telegram does not receive a proper response in the short term and delete relevant information about violations, the Hong Kong government plans to announce that it will issue a ban to Internet providers and delete the Telegram application from the download program platform.
It is reported that the Hong Kong government estimates that there are currently more than 100,000 Hong Kong users who are still actively using the Telegram application.
Low response rate for requests to delete "starting at the bottom" messages
Sources said that in the past seven months, the Office of the Commissioner has found more than 700 cases of violations related to "bottoming", reflecting that the "bottoming" problem is resurgent, because the number of "bottoming" cases in the whole of last year was only more than 800. .
The bigger problem is that the Office's referral to Telegram has received fewer and fewer positive responses. The response rate has dropped from 100% in the past to 20% to 30%, or even zero recently.
This trend has made the PCPD consider using the ultimate means, which is to use the power conferred by Section 66L of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance for the first time to stop or restrict the public from connecting to the relevant application to publish information, and even request the download platform to delete it. Telegram application. At that time, users who have downloaded the Telegram application will not be able to continue to use it, and new users will not be able to download the Telegram application in the future.
The source said that unless there is a positive response from Telegram in the short term, the Office will be forced to take action.
Privacy Commissioner, Lai Ling Chung.
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Privacy Commissioner: 6 arrested for 842 complaints last year
The government proposed to amend the Personal Data (Privacy) (Amendment) Bill last year to criminalize the act of "pricking". The new bill came into effect in October last year.
The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Chung Lai-ling said at a meeting of the Legislative Council Committee on Constitutional Affairs on Monday (16th) that last year, the Privacy Commissioner had detected 842 cases related to "limitation", of which 25 were criminalized. An investigation was launched and a total of 6 people were arrested in a joint operation with the police, and 66 other cases are under investigation.
Zhong Liling pointed out that the PCPD has issued 227 cease-disclosure notices to 12 online platforms, requesting the removal of more than 1,000 "start-up" messages, of which about 80% have been removed.
She pointed out that if overseas platforms do not remove relevant information, the PCPD will issue a warning letter and complain to overseas counterparts.
In addition, from December last year to April this year, the Commissioner's Office carried out two arrests for suspected "priming" crimes. Last week, the Commissioner's Office and the police conducted a joint arrest operation for another case, which involved someone disclosing police affairs on social platforms. personal data of officers, 70 Legislative Council members and their families.
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