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Letter to readers of the Chinese Wikipedia[edit]

Dear readers of the Chinese Wikipedia,

Concerns as to Hong Kong National Security Law ("HKNSL") from Hong Kong Wikipedia Community
When you read this letter, it is most likely that you have encountered our protest page against the upcoming HKNSL. The Hong Kong Community, with the User Group, is much aware of the impact it can bring to readers like you and, at the same time, editors like us.
The National People's Congress's decision on HKNSL had brought out new, unprecedented worries for access to Wikipedia in Hong Kong. At the same time, most details of the HKNSL were kept confidential, and Hong Kong citizens were not consulted about the details of the execution and the contents of the bill of HKNSL (the "Bill").
Some details and an outline of the Bill released by Xinhua News Agency, the Chinese Government’s propaganda arm, had revealed that the details could mean anything that would be interpreted as promoting Hong Kong seceding from China, subverting the Chinese Communist Party, promoting terrorism, or to collude with “external or foreign forces” in undermining the security of Hong Kong.
Although the details seem harmless and common across different states’ implementation for their own “national security” laws, the Hong Kong Wikipedia community and a considerable amount of editors from Hong Kong worry about the following problems that can be caused by Bill:
  1. We fear that documenting topics related to “Hong Kong independence” can fall into the category of promoting secession of Hong Kong from the PRC.
  2. We also fear that reading such topics from a Hong Kong IP address can also violate the unconsulted Bill.
  3. We fear that Wikipedia will be ultimately blocked in Hong Kong, as with China, because of its apparent stance of not filtering any content. This includes content related to Hong Kong independence, and/or related to the year-long protests in Hong Kong.
  4. There seems to be a retrospective period which is unusual to the principles of the common law system and would violate Article 12 of Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance. The same event had happened in 2016 where an "interpretation" of the Hong Kong Basic Law retrospected oaths in the past and directly led to six pro-democracy legislative councilors being disqualified from taking office.
The uncertainty of HKNSL makes contributing to Wikipedia by Hong Kong editors and readers in Hong Kong at risk of violating the HKNSL without the editors and readers even noticing so. This undermines the ability of Hong Kong editors to continue contributing to Wikipedia.
Thus, Hong Kong editors decided to carry out a 44-hour blackout of certain Hong Kong protest-related pages in Chinese Wikipedia to protest such action. We also hope out worries are just fabricated and the ability for Wikipedia to supply unbiased, neutral content containing views from all sides will not be affected.
We hope related authorities can clarify our worries and protect the continued, unrestricted access to Wikipedia, and all information, without any possibility of violating the Bill that wasn’t locally consulted.
Best Regards,
The Hong Kong Wikipedia Community