Amidst the increasingly violent protests in Hong Kong, a top official there has suggested implementing internet censorship as a way to quell the unrest, according to AFP.

This comes after the city faced a surge in protests over the weekend in reaction to a controversial decision to ban face masks.

Government would not rule out Internet ban

On Oct. 4, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced a ban on face masks, invoking emergency laws for the first time since 1967.

In response, protesters went on a massive anti-mask protest, which led to the entire Hong Kong MTR line to be closed over the weekend.

AFP reported that many feared the mask ban was just the start of more emergency orders to come, with one protester telling the wire that "it's an excuse to just introduce other totalitarian laws".

Protesters also became increasingly violent, with footage surfacing of protesters beating up people who appear to have been members of the public.

In a radio interview, Executive Council member Ip Kwok-him told Commercial Radio that the government would consider all legal means to stop the ongoing protests.

Protesters have been using online forums, such as the Reddit-like LIHKG forum, and encrypted messaging apps, such as Telegram, to organise themselves and plan protests.

These online platforms have allowed the largely leaderless protests to retain momentum throughout 18 consecutive weekends of protests.

To combat the protesters' tactics, Ip claimed that the government "would not rule out a ban on the internet."

It is unclear how the government would enforce such a ban.

But some Hongkongers are already turning to VPN services to mask their usage of the Internet, just in case, but not as if these services can be useful when the web goes down.

After Executive Councillor Ip Kwok-him said the government "would not rule out a ban on the Internet” today, I paid for a VPN subscription for the first time since moving back to Hong Kong from the mainland. I wasn’t alone: the @NordVPN app became the most downloaded in the city. pic.twitter.com/JWp7lBmq9i

— Ryan Ho Kilpatrick 何松濤 (@rhokilpatrick) October 7, 2019

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Top image from HKFP.