The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data has mounted an investigation after receiving complaints, the government says.
The Hong Kong government has condemned acts of harassment and “doxxing” after several people who attended the first town hall dialogue
of the city’s embattled leader had their personal information shared on social media.
In a statement on Saturday, the government also said the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data had mounted an investigation after receiving complaints.
“In the past three months, conflicts in society have led Hong Kong into a chaotic situation. The government hopes that, through peaceful and rational dialogues with people of different backgrounds and stances, it can find a way out for Hong Kong,” it said.
Amid tight security, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor held a community dialogue session with more than 130 people at Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Wan Chai on Thursday as part of her strategy to end more than three months of social unrest triggered by a now-withdrawn extradition bill.
Anti-government demonstrators have continued to demand an independent
commission of inquiry to investigate alleged police misconduct during protests and for a relaunch of political reforms to bring about universal suffrage in the city.
In one case of doxxing – the practice of posting a person’s private data online – a woman who had expressed pro-government views at the dialogue session was targeted. Internet users posted that she was an agent for an investment company and gave information such as her office phone number.
The woman had said students should stay out of politics and that public broadcaster RTHK should be reformed for “spouting anti-government propaganda while taking public money”.
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Facebook user later claimed on the social media platform that the woman was made to go on leave by her company after it was surrounded by protesters.
The company could not be reached for comment on Saturday.
Another woman’s identity and personal information were also revealed after she was suspected to be a police officer. She spoke in favour of the police force at the dialogue. “I just walk past police stations and patrolling officers feeling normal, but when I see a bunch of black-clad, masked people gathering together and shouting these days, I do feel afraid,” she added, referring to protesters.
On Friday, Chief Superintendent John Tse Chun-chung of the force’s public relations branch said the speaker was a former auxiliary police officer who left years ago.
“Even if police officers participate in such dialogues when they are off-duty, they are exercising their rights as a citizen,” he said.