Why are Vpn providers Abandoning hong kong?
In the first week of July, China enforced new sets of laws via chinese authorities which gave authorities special powers like online surveillance and censorship powers in the hand of Hong Kong law enforcement which are a part of China’s National security law. Under this law not only citizens, but companies operating in hong kong will have to share all the data that they possess with the Chinese government, whether they like it or not. This is why many companies including vpn providers decided to leave the country.
If that’s the case then why isn’t protonvpn leaving?
Protonvpn claims that it is staying in Hongkong, for now. The vpn provider believes in fighting against the wrong and would not give up easily as per what they wrote in their blog. If any kind of pressure is made on the provider, then they intend to challenge it in courts or other appropriate venue.
What if the provider fails to withstand the Chinese government?
Andy yen, founder of Proton technologies, said,”If it subsequently becomes impossible to ensure an appropriate level of privacy or security, we would indeed shut down our servers in Hong Kong.”
How is ProtonVPN planning to tackle this situation?
Since Hongkong has been kept under high risk countries by proton servers, the company used the following measures to be future proof:
- ProtonVPN and ProtonMail use only bare metal servers, for tight control and avoidance of potential tampering.
- protonvpn implements full disk, block-level encryption on all their servers.
- protonvpn has zero staff and zero presence in Hong Kong or in China dus to which they believe they are less susceptible to pressure from chinese authorities.
- Also company says they are based in Switzerland and ubder swiss law no government or authority without the approval of Swiss court could demand data from them.
What can people of Hong Kong expect from protonvpn?
Here’s what protonVPN has to say:
“Proton has an office in Taiwan, so we feel great solidarity with our users in Hong Kong and a duty to uphold our shared values. As part of this commitment, we will soon be announcing a program to directly support organizations fighting for freedom in Hong Kong. Today, we are not just fighting for the future of freedom and democracy in Hong Kong, but for freedom around the world. Now, more than ever, the people of the world must stand together, and today, we stand with Hong Kong.”
