A judge in Hong Kong on Monday delayed ruling on a petition to ban the online distribution of a popular pro-democracy protest song in a case that could further challenge the way tech companies operate in the Chinese territory.
After asking the government to be more specific about the scope of its request, the judge set up a new hearing for July 21.
Hong Kong authorities are cracking down on anything they consider a threat to national security, focusing on arrests and prosecution of individuals.
The song up for discussion at Monday’s court hearing, “Glory to Hong Kong,” was a particular flashpoint for the government, as it is considered the anthem of the protests that challenged China’s campaign to crack down on political dissent in the former British colony. to deal with.
The government filed a court petition last week alleging that “Glory to Hong Kong” was used to “insult” China’s national anthem. While no defendants were named, the filing included 32 links to the song on YouTube. And in December, Hong Kong authorities criticized Google for displaying the protest song in search results for the Hong Kong national anthem.
On Monday, Hong Kong Supreme Court Justice Wilson Chan pressured a government representative on a number of issues, including clarifying the type of defendants the petition would apply to.
“The judge was trying to make sure that some basic conditions would be met if he issued an injunction today,” said Kevin Yam, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Asian Law in Melbourne, Australia.
The impact of the case on how Hong Kong’s tech companies operate remains to be seen.
Google and Meta established offices in Hong Kong more than a decade ago, and today they each have up to several hundred employees there. Twitter opened an office in 2015, but closed it two years later. It no longer has any staff in town.
If they are forced to remove links related to the song from their online platforms for users in Hong Kong, the companies could use a common technology known as geo-blocking, said George Chen, former head of public policy for Great Britain. China at Meta and the editor-in-chief of The Asia Group, a consulting firm based in Washington.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, declined to comment. Meta did not respond to requests for comment.
Tensions between tech companies and Hong Kong authorities began to escalate in 2020, when Hong Kong passed a comprehensive national security law to stamp out opposition to the ruling Communist Party. The case on Monday was not formally brought under national security law, but the government last week cited it as a reason the court should grant its request.
The number of requests from authorities to remove content on the internet has skyrocketed since the law was passed. Hong Kong officials wanted to remove 183 items from services like YouTube and Google Search in the second half of 2022, a 10-year spike largely driven by a general surge in national security-related requests, Google said. The company refused about half of those requests.
Joy Dong contributed reporting from Hong Kong.
