National security law: Naver moves data centre from Hong Kong to Singapore

South Korea’s largest internet portal made the decision amid concerns Chinese authorities could use the new legislation to access users’ information

All the data in its Hong Kong centre was deleted earlier this month, with a company executive saying ‘other technical reasons’ were also involved

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Naver is the first South Korean company known to have made changes to its Hong Kong operations after the new national security law came into effect. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:58pm, 21 Jul 2020Updated: 11:13pm, 21 Jul 2020

Naver, South Korea’s largest internet portal, has confirmed that it moved its overseas data backup centre from Hong Kong to Singapore amid fears that Chinese authorities could use the city’s far-reaching national security law to access users’ information.

In a Korean-language statement on Tuesday, Naver – which offers search-engine services and is often referred to as the Google of South Korea – did not mention the new legislation.

“All data in the data backup centre in Hong Kong has securely been moved to Singapore,” it said. “Data in Hong Kong was deleted earlier this month and servers there were reformatted.”

Speaking to This Week in Asia, a Naver public relations official said the move was related to the implementation of the new legislation – which covers offences committed anywhere in the world – but “not entirely” due to it.

“The relocation is also related to other technical reasons,” said the official, who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, without providing further information.

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