Dec. 12, 2024 |
Reputational hazards. Back in 2019, when I lived in Hong Kong, the police began ordering financial institutions to freeze the bank accounts of clients tied to the then-ongoing protest movement. The banks complied, and they've kept complying. Last year, for instance, HSBC closed three bank accounts belonging to the League of Social Democrats, one of Hong Kong’s last remaining pro-democracy groups. The practice, sometimes called “debanking,” is an established part of the autocratic playbook for crushing political dissent.
Recent claims, including from the prominent American venture capitalist Marc Andreesen, imply that something comparable may now be happening in democratic countries, too. Is that true? And if so, how common would it be?
Today, Victoria Barnes explores what's behind the obscure but politically charged practice of debanking.
—Gustav Jönsson
