Court Hands Police Partial Win Over Doxxing Fears

Hong Kong's biggest police officers association on Thursday won a partial victory in its legal fight to restrict access to voter registration details, with the Court of Appeal agreeing that there is no need for the general public to be able to look up people's information on electoral registers.

The Junior Police Officers' Association has been seeking to bar election authorities from publicly disclosing personal details on voters, saying it could be used for doxxing purposes.

The police force has repeatedly complained that personal details of officers have been maliciously shared online and elsewhere since the anti-government protests erupted last summer, with threats subsequently being made to officers and their families.

In April, the High Court acknowledged that doxxing campaigns can be "appalling, reprehensible and hideous", but said there was no evidence that people are specifically using the limited information contained in the electoral registers to target police officers.

But the Court of Appeal has now found that a law requiring the name and home address of voters to be made public via the registers fails to strike the right balance between ensuring transparent elections and people's privacy.

It also ruled, however, that candidates, members of the press, and political parties should continue to have access to such information for purposes related to elections.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association had been included as a party in the case.

"We are keenly aware of the role played by the press in maintaining the integrity of the electoral system and we do not wish anything in this judgment to be read as suggesting that such a role should be reduced," the three-judge panel said.

The court said it is up to the electoral authorities and the legislature to decide how to implement a limited discretion arrangement for access to voter registers.

It also extended a temporary injunction banning inspections of voter information, and set May 27 as the date for another hearing on this.