The Hong Kong authorities’s renewed concern over the music got here after at the least two cases over the previous few months the place it was mistakenly used to symbolize Hong Kong athletes at sports activities matches.
The look of the music at sports activities occasions overseas triggered offended reactions from Hong Kong authorities. On Monday Chris Tang, the safety minister, mentioned the federal government will use “every means to rectify the situation.”
On Tuesday, Hong Kong chief John Lee mentioned that the federal government will proceed to correspond and observe up with Google, and that it’s “possible to rearrange the search results via advertisements and remove items” which have violated the legislation.
“Setting aside its legal status, the national anthem represents the dignity and feelings of a country and its people,” Lee mentioned. “It’s a moral issue. I believe any responsible institution must take it seriously.”
Since Hong Kong’s handover from British rule to Beijing in 1997, Hong Kong’s official anthem has been the identical as China’s — the “March of The Volunteers.”
During the 2019 protests, nevertheless, demonstrators popularized the pro-democracy music, “Glory to Hong Kong,” which broadly got here to be seen because the “anthem” of the motion — apparently complicated Google’s search algorithms.
Millions marched in peaceable protests in opposition to an extradition invoice that 12 months, however elevated violence amid a heavy-handed police response, and the protesters’ shifting objectives, noticed Beijing in 2020 impose a nationwide safety legislation that has been used to crack down on freedoms of protest, speech and educational analysis.
A Google spokeswoman declined to remark, however confirmed the corporate doesn’t manipulate rankings of natural search outcomes, that are decided by algorithms. The firm says it solely removes content material that violates their insurance policies or are deemed unlawful in numerous jurisdictions.
The prime outcomes of an English search of “Hong Kong national anthem” on Google, is the Wikipedia web page for “Glory to Hong Kong” with textual content saying that some have dubbed it the “national anthem of Hong Kong.” The subsequent result’s the Wikipedia entry for “March of the Volunteers” and the video choices are clips of the pro-democracy music on YouTube.
In November, a lawmaker staged a protest on the Google Hong Kong workplace, delivering a letter at reception saying Google as an enormous company has a “responsibility” to delete the “song about Hong Kong independence.”
Several different members of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing legislative council flagged the severity of the incident and demanded the federal government to frequently examine search outcomes and inform the service suppliers to take away “inaccurate information involving national sovereignty.”
The anger towards a global tech agency is a bit out of character for Hong Kong the place entry to data on-line stays largely free versus that within the mainland, and is a part of its attraction for multinational firms.
In Dubai two weeks in the past, the pro-democracy music was performed after which reduce quick when the Hong Kong gold medal winner at a weightlifting competitors alerted organizers.
In November, an instrumental model of the music was performed in full at a global rugby match that includes the Hong Kong crew in Incheon, South Korea.
Hong Kong authorities instantly launched a police investigation and the chief secretary summoned the South Korea’s consul to inform him the federal government “strongly deplores and opposes the incident” and request an inquiry.
On Monday, the police arrested a 49-year-old man underneath a sedition legislation for allegedly sharing the footage of the South Korea incident and expressing gratitude to Incheon for “recognizing the Hong Kong national anthem.”