Judge delays decision on Hong Kong’s request to ban protest song online
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In a photo from Sept 18, 2019, people perform protest song Glory To Hong Kong during an anti-extradition Bill protest at a shopping mall in Kowloon Tong.
PHOTO: REUTERS
HONG KONG – A Hong Kong court on Monday postponed deciding on a petition to ban the online distribution of a popular pro-democracy protest song, in a case that could further challenge how technology companies operate in the Chinese territory.
After asking the government to be more specific about the breadth of its request, Judge Wilson Chan of the High Court in Hong Kong set another hearing for July 21.
Hong Kong’s intent to ban Internet platforms from hosting a protest song
The authorities also asked the court to ban 32 videos of the song on YouTube.
The application is the latest twist in a long-running battle by the government to force Alphabet’s Google to stop displaying the song prominently on its search engine
Web searches for Hong Kong’s national anthem
“Censorship regime is creeping in at an accelerated pace,” said Ms Xiaomeng Lu, a director at Eurasia Group, who specialises in geopolitics and technology.
“Further pressure on big tech to comply with government demands could compel these companies to withdraw their services from the market, just like how Google pulled its search engine from mainland China in 2010.”
Google declined to comment for this report.
The company has repeatedly rejected the government’s appeals
Glory To Hong Kong has been played by mistake at a number of global sporting events, causing embarrassment for the government.
Organisers at an Asian rugby event in 2022 in South Korea downloaded the wrong song after searching online for the city’s national anthem.
Forceful move
For Mr Michael Davis, a former law professor at the University of Hong Kong, the court bid signals the government’s intent to widen a crackdown on such issues to the Internet and social media.
Such a move may exacerbate worries among global firms about the city’s viability as an international finance centre.
Hong Kong is guaranteed freedom of speech until at least 2047 under a “one country, two systems” framework.
This contrasts with mainland China, where foreign social media and search engines are blocked, and news organisations and film-makers face tight restrictions.
“To move more aggressively on both local and international Internet providers does signal a more forceful move into the area of internet censorship,” Mr Davis said.
“Until now, Hong Kong’s main remaining distinction from the mainland has been access to largely uncensored global internet and media providers.”
The court order is seen as an interim step until the government enacts its own local security law, known as Article 23, a controversial legislation designed to curb sedition.
The injunction, if granted, may still not compel companies such as Google to comply because of its framing.
That is because the government is seeking to ban performances or broadcasts of the song if there is intent to incite others to sedition, or if the song was likely to be mistaken for Hong Kong’s national anthem.
“It’s hard to see how tech companies hosting material that someone else uploaded would fall afoul of either of those,” said Assistant Professor Stuart Hargreaves of the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s law school.
“My suspicion is that the tech companies will probably refuse to do so until there is clear legislation on the matter.”
Eurasia’s Ms Lu also predicts Google will reject the government’s bid.
“I would expect Google to turn down their requests and log such interactions in the company’s disclosure reports,” Ms Lu said.
The government has increasingly taken a tough approach to anything related to national security.
Events that could create discord, such as commemorating the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, are no longer permitted – even if officials have been coy about an outright ban.
While the city has its own currency, legal system and flag, it has never had its own national anthem.
Under colonial rule, Hong Kong used the British national anthem.
Since the handover in 1997, it has adopted the March Of The Volunteers, which was written during China’s war against Japan. Glory To Hong Kong was written in 2019. NYTIMES, BLOOMBERG
