Police get more powers to censor online content

Police in Hong Kong have been given new powers to enforce its ‘‘national security law’’, including the right to censor internet content and conduct searches without judicial approval.

Carrie Lam, the territory’s chief executive, said the new rules were not subject to judicial review and that any criticism amounted to poor understanding of the law. Speaking shortly after the Committee for Safeguarding National Security met for the first time to hand police more authority, Lam said: ‘‘If citizens comply with the law, there’s no need to worry. It is a rather mild law. Its scope is not as broad as that in other countries and even China.’’

Beijing imposed the law on June 30 to ban acts of sedition, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion, punishable by life imprisonment.

Police can now order technology companies to remove what they consider to be harmful information from the internet or limit access to such information, and demand that foreign political groups submit information such as individuals’ details, assets, income and expenditure. Anyone who fails to comply will be subject to a fine and up to two years in jail.

Facebook, Twitter and Google have temporarily stopped processing requests from Hong Kong police for user data, as they review the new law.

Linkedin, a social media site for professionals, is allowed to operate after it agreed to censor content, but Facebook, Twitter, Google and Telegram are all banned in the country.

Tiktok, a video-sharing app owned by the Chinese company Byte Dance, is being withdrawn from Hong Kong, where it has 150,000 users. Users of chat apps such as WhatsApp have deleted their history and removed posts on social media in response to the new law.

Australia warned its citizens yesterday that they could be at risk of ‘‘arbitrary detention’’ if they visit China. –