Editorial Roundup: US

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad: ___ Nov. 12 South China Morning Post on a recent prison sentence in a ‘˜doxxing’ case: The violence and chaos of last year’s social unrest prompted complaints about conduct and tactics from both sides. An egregious example was the cyber warfare weapon of doxxing, in which personal details of the victim are exposed for the purposes of intimidation or harassment. Victims included senior government officials, police officers, their family members, protesters, journalists, and business and community figures. A court has now punished the first person found guilty of doxxing during the anti-government protests. District Court Judge Frankie Yiu Fun-che jailed former Hong Kong Telecom worker Chan King-hei, 33, for two years after he was found guilty of offences including doxxing the father of a police inspector. This kind of gratuitous victimisation is abhorrent. The judge’s remarks and the father’s victim-impact statement reflect that. Yiu said doxxing could have a serious psychological impact on police and distress innocent family members. He cited the father’s description of feeling helpless, fragile and anxious about his safety. The judge said Chan’s breach of his employer’s trust to access and share personal data when relations between police and the community were stressed warranted a deterrent sentence. Following controversy over the outcome of recent court cases arising from the protests, a court last month granted an interim injunction to protect judicial officers and their families from doxxing and harassment. This follows similar injunctions protecting police and barring online incitement of violence. The deterrent sentence handed down by Yiu is welcome. Doxxing may also be a criminal offence under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance punishable by a fine of up to HK$1 million and five years in jail. From June last year to the end of September, the privacy commissioner handled 4,714 doxxing-related cases, as a result of complaints or surveillance. More than 1,650, or about 35 per cent, involved police and their family members and 189 involved government officials and public servants. Members of the public who had expressed views for or against the government or the police each represented about 30 per cent of cases. Online: https://www.scmp.com ___ Nov. 11 The Washington Post on negotiations in the U.S./E.U. trade war: When is a setback for U.S.-European trade not necessarily a setback for U.S.-European trade? When it’s Monday’s European Union announcement of $4 billion in new tariffs on U.S. goods, in retaliation for the Trump administration’s imposition of tariffs on $7.5 billion in European goods, ranging from aircraft to whiskey, last year. This latest round of tit-for-tat levies so clearly demonstrates the mutually destructive nature of transatlantic trade conflict that it may finally prompt both sides to negotiate a permanent settlement. At issue is the United States’ 16-year-old battle at the World Trade Organization, initiated under the Bush administration, to punish Europe for subsidizing Airbus, the Franco-Anglo-German-Spanish consortium that competes for global commercial aircraft sales with the U.S. national champion, Boeing. The E.U., in effect, countersued, and the WTO – confirming its usefulness as an impartial arbiter in such matters – has ruled, correctly, that both sides are right. Each is guilty of illegally subsidizing aircraft exports, Europe via subsidized loans, and the United States through state-level tax breaks.