A pro-China Telegram channel is identifying Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters and rioters with an aim to build a database of them and submitting their information to China’s Ministry of State Security Reporting Platform.

In an environment where anonymity is possible and often desirable, exposing sufficient information to identify a person — or even the threat of it — is a frequent tactic to silence or intimidate the person being exposed. This phenomenon of exposing otherwise anonymous people’s personally identifiable information (PII), “doxxing,” is a darker manifestation of open-source research.

Once a person has been doxxed, they often experience a significant amount of online and, frequently, real-life harassment. Combining the tactic with a referral to a national government — especially one with a reputation for mass surveillance and societal control — for punitive action is an elevation in anti-democratic behavior.

Doxxing is becoming a potent weapon for both sides — pro-democracy and pro-China — of the ongoing protests in Hong Kong.

Doxxing on public channels

One of the primary Telegram channels through which protesters are doxxed is 好孩子特輯（逃犯條例 (“Good Kids [Fugitive Offenders Ordinance]”) or, alternatively, “Yeeseelostandfound” as it labelled itself in English. When the DFRLab started its analysis, the channel’s name was “父母搵仔女（逃犯條例)” (“Parents and children [Fugitive Offenders Ordinance]”) and updated its name during the course of the analysis.

The administrator for the channel, in particular, appears to play a primary role in its activities. They either crowdsource the work by posting a photo and asking for help in identifying the person or people in the photo, which they request to receive privately (i.e., not in channel). Or they simply post an after-submission notice, putting forth the PII and a photo for somebody they say has been submitted to the Chinese government.

A message (top) requesting subscribers to report protesters who have “caused riots.” The second message (bottom), from the administrator, confirms that a protester had been reported to China’s Ministry of State Security through its reporting portal. The English name is highlighted in red. (Source: Yeeseelostandfound/archive, top; Yeeseelostandfound/archive, bottom)

The channel also posts information about pro-democracy participants whose pictures have been lifted from private — usually pro-democracy — channels or that have been posted as a part of media reports.