Social media giant Facebook said it has withdrawn its plans for a submarine fiber optic cable from California to Hong Kong in the United States.
A Facebook spokesperson told AFP, “Due to ongoing U.S. government concerns about direct connectivity between the U.S. 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 concerns.”
Facebook, Tata Communications and other telecommunications companies first applied to build the fiber optic cable in 2018, and the fiber optic cable would have connected two sites in California to Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The Hong Kong-Americas project aims to boost fiber optic communications, which can carry large amounts of data and have short waiting times. But Washington sees the project as a potential national security risk as China tightens its grip on Hong Kong.
Facebook has repeatedly abandoned various fiber-optic cable projects connecting Hong Kong in recent months. Previously, due to national security concerns, Facebook and Google and other companies dropped the Pacific Light Cable Network project (Pacific Light Cable Network) in late August last year, including Hong Kong, which would only connect the Philippines and Taiwan.
The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement last June that the U.S. would be connected to Hong Kong by a fiber optic cable as part of the PLCN project, which would result in U.S. communications information being collected by the Chinese Communist Party. The statement also cited the Chinese government’s infringement on Hong Kong’s autonomy.
Last September, companies such as Facebook and Amazon also withdrew their applications for a submarine cable linking San Francisco to Hong Kong, which was part of the Bay to Bay Express Cable System.
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