Social networking giant Facebook has decided to halt its plan to build a trans-Pacific submarine cable linking California and Hong Kong due to tensions between the United States and China.
A Facebook spokesperson told AFP today, “Due to ongoing U.S. government concerns about direct communications links between the United States and Hong Kong, we have decided to withdraw our application to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).”
The spokesperson added: “We look forward to working with all parties to reconfigure the system to meet the U.S. government’s considerations.”
Facebook and several telecommunications companies first applied for permission to build in 2018 to connect 2 sites in Hong Kong and Taiwan from California.
The project was originally intended to facilitate trans-Pacific communications through fiber optic cables that could transmit large amounts of data with very short waiting times.
But Washington has resisted the project because of potential national security risks associated with China, which has tightened its grip on Hong Kong.
The U.S. Department of Justice recommended last June that the trans-Pacific submarine cable proposed by Google Inc. and Facebook bypass Hong Kong.
The cable, called the Pacific Light Cable Network (PLCN), was originally intended to link the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines.
The Department of Justice noted that the Hong Kong landing site “would expose U.S. communications traffic to collection by the Beijing authorities.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission granted Google a license in April 2020 to use the submarine cable between North America and Taiwan.
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