New Macau faces cyberattacks, threats due to voting activity

Lawmaker and New Macau Association member Sulu Sou

Local pro-democracy group New Macau Association (ANM) said that the website where it has been conducting its voting activities on universal suffrage has been subject to cyberattacks and that the association has received threats.

The website, which contains only one question: “Do you agree that the Chief Executive of the Macau SAR should be elected by universal suffrage?” had received 4,756 answers as of 4 p.m. yesterday.

Speaking to the press yesterday, association member and lawmaker Sulu Sou said that the numbers had matched their expectations for the week.

Additionally, Sou said that since August 15, the website has been experiencing technical issues due to a cyberattack.

The lawmaker said that although it has been fixed, the website showed that the IP addresses related to the attacks were from the SAR and mainland China.

“We cannot confirm the actual source of the cyberattack, but we know that their main objective is to the damage the system so that other citizens won’t be able to enter the website,” said Sou.

“These incidents of cyberattacks are still happening now, but we will try our best to protect all personal data for safety and integrity,” the lawmaker added.

The association has long been fighting for universal suffrage, arguing that local citizens should form the core of the city’s democratization.

Meanwhile, the lawmaker also said that last Wednesday afternoon, the association received threats from people who tried to surround their site, insulting them due to their different political opinion.

According to Sou, police authorities are aware of this and have taken videos of the threats.

“They [the attackers] tell us that if we keep promoting civil voting, they will continue to surround us and insult us. They added that they don’t want someone to damage the local society,” Sou said.

Although the association has no plans to press charges against those who threatened and insulted the association and its activities, Sou said that they are still monitoring the level of threats they are receiving. 

“Some police also took videos of that. We also have communication with them, but we just wanted to let them know the situation. [We are not] pressing charges,” he stressed.

The voting activity will take place until August 25, to assess public opinion on how Macau’s top official should be chosen.

Meanwhile, when commenting on police authorities’ rejection of today’s supposed silent protest at Senado Square to oppose the conduct of Hong Kong’s police during the demonstrations in the neighboring SAR, Sou said that rejecting the protest affects freedom of assembly.

The lawmaker said up to now, he was still not aware of who the organizers were, but clarified that although the protest will be ongoing, he will still not attend, arguing that the core problem in the neighboring SAR does not lie with police authorities.

However, he expressed regret that the police authority rejected the request for protest.

“This is not just an individual case [so] it affects the freedom of assembly seriously. I think it’s not reasonable to [reject] the assembly only because of possible violence,” said Sou.

“As an observer in this case, I think the police should take responsibility to protect, but not to directly [reject] the assembly. I hope the organizers considered appealing the [authorities’] decision.”