Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily gets injunction against reporters’ doxxing after harassment related to anti-government protests
- Russia-hosted website wanted ‘to know who these people are and why are they messing up Hong Kong’, and published personal details of almost 20 workers at the paper
- High Court order will leave it in contempt if it does it again
Chinese-language tabloid Apple Daily has obtained a court order to protect its reporters after almost 20 of them had their personal details spread online.
The campaign of leaks, also known as “doxxing”, was conducted on a website apparently set up to oppose the recent anti-government protests in Hong Kong.
The High Court granted the injunction order on Thursday, two days after the city’s privacy commissioner expressed grave concern and requested the website remove all posts and cease the doxxing, saying it amounted to illegal cyberbullying. Police were also alerted.
The order, which will last until October 4, bans anyone from disclosing or publishing the personal details of the staff of Apple Daily, or helping anyone to do so, according to the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Ryan Law Wai-kwong.
It covers publications of names, titles, addresses, email addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, social media account details and photos.
