U.S. President Donald Trump‘s social media accounts were blocked, and the messaging software WhatsApp recently asked users to agree to share user information with parent company Facebook. These events have triggered a new wave of online “immigration” in Hong Kong. Although WhatsApp has conceded to extend the deadline for the new terms of use until May 15, and Facebook has reinstated Trump’s account that was cancelled earlier, some netizens are still determined to leave and have cancelled their Facebook and WhatsApp accounts and moved to new platforms MeWe and Signal respectively.
Pro-Beijing media criticized the netizens’ move as a move to promote “Hong Kong independence”. Media analysts called on netizens to “migrate” rationally and not to raise another Internet “behemoth” in the long run, creating a new monopoly and jeopardizing freedom of expression.
After U.S. President Donald Trump was accused of instigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol building and had his accounts cancelled by several social media companies, some Internet users moved to new online platforms because they did not agree with the practice. This phenomenon has recently spread from the United States to Hong Kong. Hong Kong Facebook users have appeared on the exit to move to MeWe discussion, many users illustrated how to switch to “immigration”, teaching quick and easy technical examination.
No coincidence, the popular communication software WhatsApp in Hong Kong recently asked users to sign a consent form to share user information with parent company Facebook (Facebook), otherwise the account will be deleted in early February. As early as 2018, Facebook was widely reported to have entered into “data sharing” partnerships with at least four Chinese companies, including huawei and Lenovo. According to the reports, the four Chinese companies can view users’ information on Facebook through the partnership. The terms of the agreement have been in operation since at least 2010.
Most Hong Kong users who use both WhatsApp and Facebook are concerned that not only could their personal messages and conversations on Facebook be read by the Chinese companies, but once they sign the WhatsApp consent form, the Chinese companies could also pass on sensitive messages they have left with friends in their WhatsApp accounts to the Chinese government, putting users in a very dangerous situation.
Netizens call for a two-pronged approach to switch to MeWe and Signal
These worried netizens not only recommend Facebook to switch to MeWe, but also call for abandoning the use of WhatsApp and moving to another communication software, Signal, to implement a two-pronged measure.
Meanwhile, the number of global downloads of MeWe and Signal has been increasing in recent days. According to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower, Signal has been at the top of the download charts every day from January 10 to 17. In the week before WhatsApp announced the change in terms, Signal was downloaded 246,000 times worldwide, but the week after the announcement, it was downloaded 8.8 million times. Musk, the founder of electric car maker tesla, has become more vocal in his support of Signal, encouraging the abandonment of WhatsApp.
In addition, social networking site MeWe has added an average of 400,000 users a day worldwide since Jan. 9, bringing the total number of users to more than 14 million worldwide.
Paul Fong: Hong Kong netizens unhappy with Trump’s blocking and WhatsApp’s new rules
Hong Kong Information Technology Chamber of Commerce Honorary President Paul Fong analyzed on a Facebook live blog talk show that the recent wave of Internet users in Hong Kong is indeed a combination of dissatisfaction with Trump’s blocking by the Internet giant and WhatsApp’s new terms of consent requirements.
Fang Baoqiao said: “He (Trump) in fact did not incite others to use force to attack into the Capitol building? Now the biggest problem is this, it does not matter whether there is a crime, in these democratic societies in the United States should not be sentenced before trial. The normal is not so, so now foreign countries or the United States, also caused a lot of repercussions. Trump is right or wrong, now it is before trial, why you a few network giants then can instantly ban it?”
Facebook: try to protect privacy
Facebook actually admitted to cooperating with Chinese companies when it responded to emphasize that user data did not exist in Huawei’s servers, and said it would end the cooperation agreement with the four companies. In response to the Whatsapp incident, Facebook’s Greater China president Liang Youwei used her Facebook account to clarify and explain the new Whatsapp privacy policy consent form.
She explained in a post that messages between users and anyone are protected by peer-to-peer encryption technology, so that only they and the other party can read and listen to the conversation. Liang repeatedly stressed that Whatsapp will not share the list of users’ phone contacts with anyone or any organization, including Facebook.
Whatsapp will also sign the privacy sharing consent from the original early February, extended to May 15, so that users have more time to consider. Facebook has also reinstated Trump’s account.
It remains to be seen whether Whatsapp’s move will reverse the “migratory tide” of Hong Kong netizens. However, the Hong Kong Internet writer “Uncle Yams”, who often satirizes the local situation and the current situation in China and the United States, has expressed his intention of not selling out. “Uncle Potato” has been operating on Facebook for many years and has nearly 90,000 followers. Last week he opened a MeWe account, which has accumulated more than 30,000 followers in just a few days. He told Deutsche Welle: “It takes three feet of ice to freeze in one day, and we are using our actions to express our dissatisfaction with Facebook’s hegemony.”
Pro-Beijing pro-establishment media criticize the switch to MeWe for spreading “Hong Kong independence”
The “wave of immigrants” on the Internet has recently attracted more attention from Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing media, which has accused TransWorld MeWe of spreading the idea of “Hong Kong independence. As early as last December, Hong Kong’s Ta Kung Pao reported that the “Hong Kong independence” electronic publication “New Hong Kong” had set up an account on MeWe. The report accused the articles on the platform of denying the “one country” principle, “brainwashing” young people in Hong Kong, deliberately distorting historical facts, denying the Central Government’s authority over Hong Kong, and “obviously violating Hong Kong’s national security law. “.
Application to join individual MeWe groups requires knowledge of answering political stance questions
This reporter tried to find different groups in MeWe to test whether they had a political stance, and later found that many groups about daily life had political overtones.
For example, in a special page called “Hong Kong Popo”, the owner of the page accused “police work is good to seek its (perfunctory), daily depending on the mood to do things, experience how to be a dog.” When users apply to join some community groups, they should know how to answer the slogans that anti-revision supporters often put on their lips, such as the next three numbers of “721831”, meaning that in addition to the indiscriminate attacks on people in white on July 21, 2019 in Yuen Long, and the attack on passengers in the subway car at Prince Edward MTR station on August 31 of the same year In addition. The group’s applicants need to know the correct answers before they are allowed to join by the moderator.
Media analysts: Don’t concentrate on “migrating” to two new platforms
Terry’s Media Laziness, which has more than 74,000 followers on Facebook, believes that it is not necessary for Internet users to use Signal or go to MeWe to do the right thing. Terry, the director of the Facebook page, pointed out that people should not rely on a large platform to build consensus, otherwise they would be promoting a monopoly like Facebook.
He writes, “In and of itself, we should not rely on a single social media to communicate. Groups of different personalities, interests and interests, scattered across large and small platforms, organically creating different ecologies, are the healthiest media ethos.”
Terry also recalled the reason for the new requirement of Whatsapp’s privacy clause consent form, blaming Facebook for acquiring WhatsApp in order to monopolize more, which was used to link its Facebook and Instagram. he sent a message to Internet users to get rid of Facebook’s algorithm, not to let it go to arrange personal preferences, manipulated by big data and advertising, which became a vicious circle.
The honorary chairman of the Hong Kong Information Technology Industry Association, Mr. Fang Baoqiao, concluded the Facebook live blog talk show, hoping that the social media affected by the “migrant wave” can learn a lesson and know how to respect users.
He said: “Social media, as we often say, water can carry the boat can also overturn the boat. It’s quite rare that these things happen in social media this time. This time they are also quite old cats burning beard (old horses lose their hooves), for them, is also a very good lesson.”
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