In recent news, blockchain is now being utilized to help Hong Kong citizens combat a wave of recent censorship via one of the key media outlets. These citizens are fighting for a variety of demands, chief among which is the desire to become truly independent and move away from China’s influence. Blockchain is thus being used for this purpose, with many protestors and anti-China citizens utilizing the technology to have their memories be stored after the Chinese government had allegedly tried to have all historical records which were related to battles between the authorities and the rebellious Hong Kong citizens be completely erased.
Blockchain-based technologies have been slowly changing the complexion of the entire world as we know it for a while now, with many countries scrambling to implement blockchain into their own respective socio-economic and political institutions. Now though, the people of Hong Kong have adopted it in the continued conflict against China’s government and its centralized power and influence.
Dystopia in Hong Kong?
It had been on the 3rd of May this year that RTHK had revealed the decision to have all content and videos which were being kept on the social networks and servers be deleted. This deletion also included the content which had existed on social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube for over a year. There have been some who have deemed this decision to be controversial, saying that it is a clear attempt to have all social media content be aligned with the company’s and government’s own specific policies and interests.
With this in mind, decentralization becomes the critical factor, and this is where blockchain becomes relevant as it would be next to impossible to have the content be re-uploaded on the streaming platforms simply because companies such as RTHK have the copyrights and as such can demand any content’s immediate deletion.
Blockchain is used for various purposes
Hong Kong citizens are now utilizing blockchain to successfully store the coverage of any and all significant events as well as hopefully protect crucial content from being censored by the government.
Blockchain has been employed in the past for purposes that it was perhaps not meant to be used for but played a vital role in nonetheless. In 2018, an Ethereum transaction had been used to preserve an open letter’s contents pertaining to a case about a student and sexual abuse. The letter had all but disappeared from the public eye thanks to pressure from those with power and influence, but it had been successfully saved via blockchain and kept safe from such people’s possible intervention.