Hong Kong police sidestep Legco questions about the 19 people hired to run their Facebook and Youtube pages and why obscenity is not deleted
Written reply to lawmakers does not reveal the cost of page or the number of comments deleted
Responding to questions from the legislature about its official Facebook page, the police force yesterday would only say that it had garnered 48,000 "likes" since it was launched as a public relations move almost a month ago.
The 28,000-strong force sidestepped questions from lawmaker "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung covering areas such as how much money had been spent on running the page or the number of comments deleted.
On Facebook, while a user may click the "like" button to show approval of a particular post, the fact that he or she "likes" a particular page does not necessarily imply approval, but is instead more of a way to ensure that updates from that page are sent automatically.
The secretary for security's written reply said the force had set up a team of 19 people - all in newly created positions - to run the Facebook page and other social media campaigns, such as a YouTube channel and smartphone application.
Asked if police had taken action against anyone for their Facebook comments, the security minister said no arrests had been made so far.
