I've read a bunch about this and honestly, yeah, Hong Kong used to be way more free than it is now. My uncle lived there before and after the big changes, and he told me it felt like a totally different place after the new national security law came out in 2020. Things like freedom of speech, protests, and even what you post online started getting watched way more closely.

People used to be able to go to big marches and rallies without worrying too much, but now a lot of them are afraid they'll get into legal trouble just for showing up. Newspapers and websites that criticized the government pretty openly got shut down or had to change the way they reported stuff. It's pretty wild to think about, because Hong Kong was famous for being super open and different from the rest of China, but now it feels like those days are over. I totally get why people there are worried or even thinking about leaving.