Hong Kong is a very special case in terms of political status and consequently, internet freedom. Formerly an English colony, today Hong Kong is essentially a part of China where – opposed to the rest of the country – cultural elements and trade associated with the “western” world can more or less run free. You could say that the current status of Hong Kong and its neighbor Macau are still heritages of the colonial era. This special situation resulted in Hong Kong becoming a metropolis and a center of world trade. Thus, the internet is highly coveted in essentially all areas of life. Luckily, Hong Kong enjoys some of the most free access to content and little censorship.
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Hong Kong is undisputedly one of the most important places on the planet today. Connecting there for any reason (with a bit of far fetching on our side) is a just cause. This is reflected in the IPv6 usage of the region. There is a need for additional domain addresses on the globe, and the current IPv4 protocol cannot supply this need. Hong Kong is one of the leaders in implementing the IPv6 protocol, with over 65% support today that is growing rapidly. If you connect to Hong Kong with the help of a VPN service, expect quality wherever you look. English is a frequently used language, but Chinese-originated population dominates. In fact, it is not so rare that both Cantonese and English appear on the same website in unison, instead of choosing between one or the other.
It must be noted here that Hong Kong is a “special administrative region” of China. The Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 establishes that Hong Kong in its entirety is subject to the one country, two systems principle. From the perspective of internet freedom, this means that while the region has a high degree of autonomy, the laws affecting Hong Kong’s internet can be placed somewhere in between the UK’s (which are not so free) and China’s (which is very restrictive). It is illegal to publish an obscene article online, which is quite vague. Any form of child pornography is illegal. On the other hand, protests are present in Hong Kong (as opposed to the rest of China). For example, massive demonstrations erupted against the eventually dropped Article 23 of Hong Kong Basic law. This sanction would have forced Hong Kong into discontinuing a good number of foreign contacts, and political activity, something that contradicted the UK agreement to begin with.
There are two main areas of content that are very frequently censored or restricted in some way or another: pornography and cases of copyright infringement. Child pornography in considered to be especially harmful, in accordance with the vast majority of the planet’s countries. Merely possessing such material means five years of imprisonment. Regarding copyright infringement, Hong Kong’s laws are strict. The concept of fair use is completely ignored, meaning that the appearance of a certain work of art anywhere else other than with the official distributor(s) is considered illegal.
Self-censorship and consequently, press freedom has seen a decline in recent years. Government influence, economical pressures, police intervention and the generally poorer accessibility of information are just a few of the obstacles that you, a potential reader will get to see the negative consequences of.
Streaming availability in Hong Kong is not the best. Some of the more popular music providers like Apple Music of Google Play Music are not present in the region. However, some companies with better reception in Asia are very much open for business. KKBox is one such streamer, but it is only available in Chinese and with a selective palette of music that concentrates on local variations of pop and easy listening. Moov is a streamer that can only be found in Hong Kong. next to a wider selection of songs it also supports music videos. Soliton is a company operating exclusively in Hong Kong and its neighbor, Macau. This particular service has a voice recognition system built into it that will search for songs based on lyrics you supply or even sing into your device. And lastly, there is Spotify that has the most extended selection and also encourages socialization. In terms of moving pictures, Netflix launches in 2016 in Hong Kong, but HBO Asia is another option.
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