Operates a social platform, in Hong Kong
Control of Exemption Clauses Ordinance, sections 7, 8, 10 and 11, limits on excluding liability for negligence and for defective goodssince 8 lines
Control of Exemption Clauses Ordinance (Cap. 71), ss. 7-8, 10-11 · Read the law's page
- Do not rely on a contract term or a notice to exclude or restrict your liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence; such a term or notice has no effect (s. 7(1)).
- A term or notice that excludes or restricts your liability for other loss or damage resulting from negligence is effective only in so far as it satisfies the requirement of reasonableness, and a person's agreement to or awareness of it is not of itself voluntary acceptance of the risk (s. 7(2), (3)).
- Where the other party deals as consumer or on your written standard terms of business, a term that excludes or restricts your liability for your own breach, or that lets you perform differently from what was reasonably expected or not at all, is effective only in so far as it satisfies the requirement of reasonableness (s. 8).
- Do not use a term or notice in a guarantee of consumer goods to exclude or restrict liability for loss or damage from a defect that results from the negligence of a person concerned in the manufacture or distribution of the goods (s. 10(1)).
- Against a person dealing as consumer, you cannot exclude or restrict liability for breach of the seller's undertakings as to description, sample, quality or fitness for purpose under sections 15 to 17 of the Sale of Goods Ordinance (s. 11(2)).
- Against a business buyer, an exclusion of the sections 15 to 17 undertakings is effective only in so far as it satisfies the requirement of reasonableness (s. 11(3)).
- Sections 7 and 8 do not apply to a contract so far as it relates to the creation or transfer of a right or interest in a copyright, patent, trade mark, registered design, technical or commercial information or other intellectual property (Sch. 1, s. 1(c)).
- These limits bind only business liability, meaning liability for breach of obligations or duties arising from things done or omitted in the course of a business (s. 2(2)).
Prevention of Child Pornography Ordinance, sections 3 and 4, offences relating to child pornographysince 5 lines
Prevention of Child Pornography Ordinance (Cap. 579), ss. 2-4 · Read the law's page
- Do not publish child pornography; publishing includes distributing, circulating, selling, hiring, giving or lending it to another person and showing it to another person, and distributing includes making any message or data available through any means of electronic transmission (ss. 2(1), 2(2), 3(2)).
- Treat a computer-generated image or other visual depiction of a person who is or is depicted as being a child as child pornography, whether or not it depicts a real person and whether or not it has been modified; a child is a person under 16 (s. 2(1)).
- Do not print, make, produce, reproduce, copy, import or export child pornography (s. 3(1)).
- Do not publish, or cause to be published, an advertisement that conveys or is likely to be understood as conveying the message that any person has published, publishes or intends to publish child pornography (s. 3(4)).
- Do not possess child pornography; if it comes into your possession without your having asked for it, endeavour to destroy it within a reasonable time (ss. 3(3), 4(3)(d)).
Implementation Rules for Article 43 of the National Security Law, Schedule 4, removing messages endangering national security and requiring assistancesince 5 lines
Implementation Rules for Article 43 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Instrument A303), Schedule 4 · Read the law's page
- Take a disabling action on an electronic message when a designated officer requires it of you as platform service provider, before the deadline the officer specifies; a disabling action is removing the message, or restricting or ceasing access to it via the platform (Sch. 4, ss. 5(1), 7(3)).
- If you host stored material posted on an electronic platform, take a disabling action when the designated officer requires it because the platform service provider could not practicably be required to act or failed to comply (Sch. 4, ss. 3, 5(2), 7(4)(b)).
- If you supply an internet service or a specified network service available to end-users in Hong Kong, restrict or cease access to the message, or to the part or whole of the platform, when the designated officer requires it in the cases section 7(5)(b) describes (Sch. 4, ss. 4, 5(3), 7(5)(b), 14(4)).
- Provide the identification record, meaning the record of the identity of the person who published the message, or decryption assistance, when a police officer requires it under section 9 (Sch. 4, s. 9(3), (4)).
- Keep an address, including an email address, for receiving correspondence: a requirement or notification is issued to you once it is sent to that address, or by an electronic message if you provide none (Sch. 4, s. 15).
Crimes Ordinance, sections 159AAD and 159AAE, publishing or threatening to publish intimate images without consentsince 6 lines
Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 200), ss. 159AA, 159AAD-159AAE, 159AAG · Read the law's page
- Do not publish an intimate image of an individual without that individual's consent, intending the publication to cause humiliation, alarm or distress, or knowing or being reckless as to whether it will or is likely to (s. 159AAE(1)).
- Do not make a threat to publish an intimate image of an individual without that individual's consent (s. 159AAE(2)).
- Treat an image altered to appear to show an intimate part of the individual, or the individual doing an intimate act, as an intimate image, unless it is so altered that no reasonable person would believe that it shows one (s. 159AA(1)).
- Making available a hyperlink, or a location on an electronic platform, that gives access to the image counts as publishing it (s. 159AA(4), (5)).
- Do not publish an image that you know, or are reckless as to whether, originates from voyeurism or from unlawful recording of intimate parts, disregarding whether the individual consents (s. 159AAD(1)).
- Consent from an individual under 16 or a mentally incapacitated person does not prevent the conduct from being an offence (s. 159AAG).
Crimes Ordinance, sections 159AAK to 159AAN, disposal orders to remove, delete or destroy intimate imagessince 3 lines
Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 200), ss. 159AAK-159AAN · Read the law's page
- If a magistrate orders you, whether in Hong Kong or elsewhere, to take reasonable steps to remove, delete or destroy an intimate image you control or possess, or to cause its removal, deletion or destruction, do so within the period the order specifies (s. 159AAL(1)).
- If you are named as the subject person in a summons, appear on the day specified to make representations; a person with an interest in the image, or directly affected by the order, may also appear (s. 159AAM(2), (3)).
- A summons or disposal order is regarded as served in Hong Kong when it is served by hand, left at your last known address or sent by registered post to that address (s. 159AAN(3)).
Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, sections 66J to 66P, cessation notices for doxxing messagessince 4 lines
Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486), ss. 66J-66P · Read the law's page
- If the Privacy Commissioner serves a cessation notice on you, take the cessation action it specifies on or before the date it specifies; the action can be removing the message from your platform, ceasing or restricting access to it or to the part or whole of the platform, or discontinuing the hosting service for that part or the whole (ss. 66L(2), 66M(3)).
- The notice reaches a person present, incorporated, established or registered in Hong Kong, or with a place of business there, and also a non-Hong Kong service provider that has provided or is providing any service to any Hong Kong person (s. 66M(1), (2), (5)).
- To contest a cessation notice, appeal to the Administrative Appeals Board within 14 days after it is served; the appeal does not suspend the notice, so comply while the appeal is pending (s. 66N).
- Complying with a cessation notice does not expose you to civil liability to another person only because of the compliance (s. 66P).
Copyright Ordinance, section 88B, limitation on the liability of service providers for infringement on their platformssince 6 lines
Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528), ss. 88A-88B · Read the law's page
- To keep the section 88B limitation on liability, take reasonable steps to limit or stop an infringement on your service platform as soon as practicable after you receive a notice of alleged infringement, become aware of the infringement, or become aware of facts that would lead inevitably to the conclusion that it occurred (s. 88B(2)(a)).
- Do not receive a financial benefit directly attributable to the infringement; one-off set up fees and flat periodic payments charged to all users on a non-discriminatory basis are not such a benefit (s. 88B(2)(b), (4)(b)).
- Accommodate, and do not interfere with, the standard technical measures that copyright owners use to identify or protect their works (s. 88B(2)(c)).
- Designate an agent to receive notices of alleged infringements, and supply the agent's name and contact details through your service, including on your website at a location accessible to the public (s. 88B(2)(d)).
- Complying with all the provisions of the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development's code of practice on limiting or stopping an alleged infringement counts as having taken reasonable steps (s. 88B(3)).
- The Division does not require you to monitor your service or actively seek facts that indicate infringing activity, and failing to qualify for the limitation does not affect any other defence you may have (s. 88B(5)).
Copyright Ordinance, sections 88C to 88H, notice of alleged infringement, counter notice and protection for removalsince 6 lines
Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528), ss. 88C-88H · Read the law's page
- Specify, through your service, the means by which a notice of alleged infringement and a counter notice are to be provided to your designated agent; you may also specify their form so far as it is not inconsistent with the content the Ordinance requires (ss. 88C(5), (6), 88E(5), (6)).
- A notice that lacks the content or form section 88C requires is of no effect for the section 88B(2)(a)(i) condition, and is not counted when deciding whether you were aware of the infringement (s. 88C(4)).
- On receiving a notice of alleged infringement you may send a copy to the subscriber, tell the subscriber to contact the complainant directly, remove the material or disable access to it, and notify the subscriber of the removal or disabling (s. 88C(7)).
- To keep the protection from liability for removing material that resides at a subscriber's direction, take reasonable steps to notify the subscriber of the removal and to send the subscriber a copy of the notice (s. 88H(2)(a), (b)).
- If the subscriber gives a counter notice, promptly send a copy to the complainant, act on an individual subscriber's stated option on disclosing the subscriber's personal data, and take reasonable steps to reinstate the material or cease disabling access within a reasonable time, unless proceedings seeking a court order have been commenced in Hong Kong and your designated agent has been notified of them in writing (s. 88H(2)(c), (7)).
- If you remove material after becoming aware yourself of an infringement, take reasonable steps to notify the subscriber, to give the subscriber information reasonably sufficient to identify the material and your reasons, and to reinstate the material within a reasonable time after a counter notice, to keep the same protection (s. 88H(3), (4)).