World Courant
A Hong Kong choose stated on Friday that he would rule subsequent week on a authorities request to ban a preferred pro-democracy tune from the web, in a case that would drive Google and different firms to limit entry to the tune.
At situation is “Glory to Hong Kong,” which was the anthem of the 2019 protests that ended with Beijing taking tighter management over Hong Kong. The authorities argue that the tune is an insult to China’s nationwide anthem and will make individuals imagine that Hong Kong is an unbiased nation. The federal government has banned it from colleges and lashed out when it was performed, apparently by mistake, at sports activities competitions.
On Friday Choose Anthony Chan, after listening to three hours of authorized arguments, stated he would situation his determination on July 28. The federal government is searching for an injunction to ban the publication or distribution on-line of “Glory to Hong Kong.” Anybody violating the injunction may face jail for contempt of courtroom.
The case is being carefully watched by tech firms, as a result of it has raised the specter of extra authorities management of on-line speech in Hong Kong.
“The enterprise group ought to take discover — the courts received’t be capable of defend them so long as the Hong Kong authorities can plausibly declare that nationwide safety pursuits are in play,” stated Thomas E. Kellogg, the chief director of the Heart for Asian Legislation at Georgetown College.
Google has resisted the federal government’s public requests that “Glory to Hong Kong” not present up in search outcomes or on its sibling service, YouTube. However that would change if a courtroom ordered it to abide by the request. Like most tech firms, Google has a coverage of eradicating or proscribing entry to materials that’s deemed unlawful by a courtroom in sure nations or locations.
Google, which is owned by Alphabet, stated it will not touch upon the case, as did Meta, the mother or father firm of Fb. Google and Fb established workplaces in Hong Kong over a decade in the past, and right now every has as much as a number of hundred staff within the metropolis. Apple didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The authorities in Hong Kong have more and more cracked down on what they contemplate dissent and threats to nationwide safety, focusing on people with arrests, bounties and prosecution.
On the identical time, the federal government is working to move laws by early subsequent 12 months that may goal what it considers subversive content material and shut “web loopholes,” a transfer that would have extra far-reaching penalties and codify the ban into legislation.
Hong Kong has lengthy attracted international companies searching for entry and proximity to China, away from its censorship controls. It has been the one Chinese language territory with unfettered entry to providers comparable to Google and Fb, which pulled out of China years in the past.
When Google refused a request to take away the tune in December, Hong Kong’s safety chief known as the corporate’s determination “unthinkable.”
In courtroom on Friday, Benjamin Yu, a lawyer for the federal government arguing why the tune needs to be banned, stated it had been used to “fire up feelings.” He pointed to the arrest of a harmonica participant who had performed the tune exterior the British consulate when mourning the dying of Queen Elizabeth II final 12 months.
Abraham Chan, a lawyer performing as good friend of the courtroom to current opposing arguments, stated banning the tune due to nationwide safety may disrupt the free circulation of knowledge.
“You possibly can’t merely say ‘Don’t fear concerning the chilling results,’” he stated.
The Hong Kong authorities have arrested greater than 250 individuals below an expansive nationwide safety legislation Beijing imposed on the town in 2020, aimed toward stamping out opposition to the ruling Communist Occasion.
In comparison with “slow-grinding” legal instances in opposition to people, an injunction may give the federal government a fast path to proscribing content material on on-line platforms, stated Kevin Yam, a authorized researcher and former Hong Kong lawyer based mostly in Melbourne.
No firm or particular person was named as a direct defendant within the authorities’s injunction utility, which included 32 hyperlinks to “Glory to Hong Kong” on YouTube.
However many concern {that a} courtroom injunction in opposition to “Glory to Hong Kong” may very well be a step towards extra official management over the web in Hong Kong, the place the web stays largely freed from censorship regardless of Beijing’s heavier hand in governing the territory.
American tech firms like Fb and Twitter have been blocked from mainland China in 2009. A 12 months later, Google shut down its China providers and rerouted customers to its search engine in Hong Kong, then a bastion of political freedom on Chinese language soil.
Because the nationwide safety legislation was put in place, requests to tech firms by the Hong Kong authorities to take away content material on the web have soared.
Chang Che contributed reporting from Seoul.
“Glory to Hong Kong” Injunction Ruling Will Be Made Subsequent Week
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