HONG KONG — While Americans worry about whether their employers or ex partners are reading their blogs, some citizens of the world worry about what government officials will do if they don’t like what they read online. One hapless Hong Kong resident has found out, much to his chagrin.Woo Tai-wai, a 48-year-old man, was fined $640 after being found guilty of publishing eight obscene photos by a Kwun Tong district court after posting a link to a hosting site on an adult discussion forum.
The conviction is the first for the city’s obscene and indecent articles laws, according to the South China Morning Post.
Internet Society chairman Charles Mok Nai-kwong is concerned about what the laws’ enforcement might mean. “This man posted a link on the internet, which now becomes an act that constitutes the breaking of law. My question is whether a link is being regarded as the ‘obscene article.’”
If this is the case, Mok Nai-kwong points out, then search engines including Google and Yahoo, which include links to adult websites, could be at risk.
“In cases where search engines list out all the links to pornographic websites, is it justifiable to ask whether these would have to undergo censorship, as they also provide these hyperlinks to obscene articles?”
