HKBN confirms it blocked website over national security law

Hong Kong Broadband Network has confirmed it blocked the website HKChronicles in compliance with the city's national security law, marking the first censorship of a local website under the law.

Sources said the blockage of Hong Kong Chronicles, which publishes content mainly related to anti-government protests in 2019, was ordered by the Secretary for Security, John Lee Ka-chiu, under the power granted by the national security law, and did not involve legal proceedings.

HKBN said it had stopped connecting to the HKChronicles website since Wednesday afternoon following the requirements of the security law. It did not give further details.

It is the first internet service provider to admit blocking a site amid the Beijing-imposed security law enforced since July 1 last year.

Under the implementation rules for Article 43 of the security law, the police commissioner can request the removal of online messages that he believes will harm national security.

The police, with the approval of the secretary, can request the message publisher, platform service provider or network service provider to remove the message.

They can also restrict or cease people's access to the message or the whole platform.

It is understood that the authorities decided to block the website because of its purpose, which is to disclose the personal information of officials and police officers, as well as their families.

The authorities also believe the website was set up to put pressure and intimidate law enforcers and tended to be "terrorism," sources said.

It is understood the website will be permanently blocked.

The contents published on the website include documents of alleged police brutality and personal information on pro-Beijing figures and police supporters.

Last Thursday, the chief editor and operator of HKChronicles, Naomi Chan, said in a statement that they had received reports from Hong Kong-based users that they could not access the website since the evening of January 6.

Chan said website operators also found the number of visitors from Hong Kong decreased drastically.

"After discussing and investigating with our supporters, we found that some internet service providers of Hong Kong have deliberately dropped any connection to our servers, so that the user could not receive replies from our servers, resulting in an inability to access our content," Chan said.

"Based on the reports from users, the internet service providers that had participated in the blocking of our website include Smartone, China Mobile Hong Kong, HKBN, PCCW and more."

She said some websites that share the same IP address were also affected, and warned Hongkongers that there could be large-scale internet blockage in the future.

The police earlier refused to confirm whether they ordered internet service providers to ban the website, but said they have the power to restrict certain messages that could potentially harm national security.