Hong Kong democracy activist in exile in the United Kingdom called for a global boycott of Chinese apps and products as the Chinese government exploits these economic gains and destroys freedoms around the world, Hong Kong democracy leader Law Kwun Chung told the Human Rights Foundation’s Oslo Freedom Forum on Friday (September 25).
The annual Oslo Freedom Forum, held in Norway on September 24-25, invited some of the world’s most innovative human rights defenders and advocates to tell their stories. Due to the neo-crowning epidemic, this year’s event was held entirely online.
In his video presentation, Luo Guancong recalls his own experiences organizing student movements, participating in politics, and eventually being forced into exile in Hong Kong.
He called for attention and wide dissemination of the situation in Hong Kong.
He said, “Please share all the news you see about Hong Kong, whether it’s on Twitter, on Facebook, on the photo wall. Please help us amplify our voices.”
He called for a boycott of Chinese apps, including WeChat, the overseas versions of Shakespeare’s TikTok and Zoom, saying they spy on the public and bring authoritarianism to other countries.
He said, “They are fooling you to use their apps, to buy their products, to give them financial resources, to destroy freedom around the world.”
He called on people to urge democratic governments to take action to limit the political expansion of the Chinese Communist Party.
He hopes to one day return to his beloved Hong Kong.
The theme of this year’s forum is resilience. Authoritarian regimes around the world have taken advantage of the Xinguang epidemic to tighten restrictions on freedom of expression, arrest peaceful protesters, and silence human rights activists, according to the forum. While the courage and resolve of activists and citizens have been tested, they have shown great resilience in the face of tyranny.
Activists from around the world shared their personal experiences at the forum.
In addition, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told the forum that Twitter plans to tag more official government accounts to provide users with more background information.
Twitter has long been criticized for failing to stop bad actors from using so-called “bot” accounts to spread false information.
Twitter first announced the tagging program last month, but it was initially applied only to accounts in China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including the Twitter accounts of Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, Zhao Lijian, and others, which were tagged with official accounts.
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