We’re here to report that HMA has temporarily moved our encrypted servers currently in Hong Kong to nearby locations. It’s not a decision we’re happy to make, but while we learn more about how the new laws in Hong Kong will be enforced, we feel it’s a necessary, responsible step to safeguard our users’ fundamental privacy rights.
What’s going on?
In February of 2019, the government of Hong Kong proposed The Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation Bill, which would have dramatically expanded mainland China’s ability to exercise its will over the people of Hong Kong. It would have allowed the Chinese government to extradite alleged criminals in the city to mainland China, which many, from journalists to human rights advocates, feared would enable the party to suppress free speech, detain critics, and attack anyone who opposed them.
At the time, the Hong Kong Journalist Association said this:
“The amendment will make it possible for mainland authorities to get hold of journalists in Hong Kong [on] all kinds of unfounded charges. This sword hanging over journalists will muzzle both the journalists and the whistleblowers, bringing an end to the limited freedom of speech that Hong Kong still enjoys.”
The reaction to this amendment was both fierce and inspiring. Protests emerged throughout Hong Kong, with thousands of people demanding that Hong Kong withdraw from the extradition bill. In response, both China and the government of Hong Kong deployed law enforcement and military agents to threaten, beat, and suppress the protestors. This sparked more protests, which provoked increasingly brutal responses. Ultimately, the extradition bill didn’t pass, but by that point the protests had grown in scope and scale, and would result in Hong Kong’s Chinese-controlled Congress passing new security legislation that gave the Chinese government unprecedented levels of power and control over the once fairly independent territory.
This new legislation empowers the Chinese government to imprison people for life for the act of promoting freedom or disagreeing with their government, criminalizes the tools and methods they’d use to express displeasure in the first place, and penalizes foreign nationals who criticize the party. In short, it’s a decisive blow against the people of Hong Kong who’ve spent 16 long months trying to protect their rights, and a mark of abject failure and shame for every country, company, and politician worldwide that claims to support freedom, equality, and democracy.
So what now?
After careful consideration, we have made the decision to temporarily pull our VPN servers from Hong Kong. This means for now, we won’t have physical servers at that location.
This is an action we feel is necessary for user privacy while enforcement of the new law is still being learned about, including the potential use of wiretaps and surveillance by the authorities.
All that said, this is also a preemptive decision. The Chinese government has not issued statements that they plan to hijack our servers specifically, or any edicts that would have forced us to provide backdoors for our encryption, the way Russia did last year. However, it is out of caution and concern for user privacy that we have acted to move our servers, because we understand how important VPNs are in enabling online anonymity — which, in turn, makes them very useful tools for coordinating actions among concerned citizens. And while our no-logging policy ensures a level of anonymity when using the VPN service even if the authorities demanded access, we want to take every step possible to ensure there are no problems or conflicts for our users, either now or in the future.
So, to protect all our users, both in Hong Kong and around the world, we’re moving our servers for now and will continue to monitor the situation.
One last note
We want to reiterate that we are not giving up on our users in Hong Kong. We will continue to offer our services to the people there so they can continue to encrypt their connections using our servers, and we will continue to promote their ability to access a free and uncensored internet for as long as we possibly can.
Thanks for reading.
If you want to learn more, check out these resources:
HK Privacy Law, changes
HK Security Law (the one that led to current situation)
Full Legal Doc
