- Bloomberg report about a controversial proposal raised during a consultation exercise sparks intense debate online
- ‘I can clearly and firmly say that the government has no intention to ban any social media,’ clarifies Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok
There are no plans for Hong Kong to ban Facebook, YouTube or Telegram under the Article 23 security law, ministers say after media outlet sparks online fears. Photo: AFPHong Kong has no plans to ban social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube under its proposed domestic national security law, city officials have said after a news report highlighted a controversial proposal raised during a consultation exercise.
Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok and Security Chief Chris Tang Ping-keung on Wednesday responded to a Bloomberg article about the proposed legislation’s consultation report, which listed a summary of public views, including a call for a ban on Facebook, YouTube and Telegram, an instant messaging service that was widely used during the anti-government protests in 2019.
The article generated heated debate online and led the government to issue a statement condemning the international news outlet, which later corrected its original headline to highlight that the proposal had been suggested by members of the public.
“I can clearly and firmly say that the government has no intention to ban any social media,” Lam said at a Legislative Council joint panel meeting to scrutinise the planned legislation.
“We have to understand that social media is a tool and we will not put a stop to a tool’s existence,” he added. “We are targeting the people who abuse or misuse this tool to spread speech that harms or jeopardises national security.”
Lam said Hong Kong enjoyed freedom of information and speech and that the two principles were protected under the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
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“Hong Kong is an international centre. Whether it is for finance or trading, it relies heavily on the free flow of information,” he said.
“These unique advantages must still be strengthened and safeguarded under the premise of protecting national security.”
The justice minister was speaking after lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said that some of her overseas friends had asked after reading the news whether Hong Kong would ban some social media platforms, accusing the news agency of “scaremongering”.
Authorities said in the evening that they “strongly disapproved of and condemned” Bloomberg over the “false reports” that had generated misunderstanding and panic about the coming security legislation.
A government spokesman accused the news outlet of having “suspicious” intentions and attempting to mislead readers by “one-sidedly handpicking three entries of submissions received among all others and completing it with a biased headline”.
“We request Bloomberg to ensure that future reports concerning the Basic Law Article 23 legislation would be fair and just to avoid any further misunderstanding by its readers,” he said.
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The Hong Kong government unveiled plans to enact the legislation, mandated by Article 23 of the Basic Law, in January.
The law would introduce or revamp five new types of new offences – treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, as well as theft of state secrets and espionage.
Tang said the government had noticed that whenever authorities published certain information, some people would extract one or two sentences without context to mislead the public.
“I believe Hongkongers have discerning eyes and are able to identify fake news that attempts to mislead and intimidate the public,” he said.
A Bloomberg News spokesman said on Wednesday night that the service had published two headlines that “misconstrued public comments on Article 23 as Hong Kong ... government proposals”.
“These headlines were published in error and a correction was issued within 10 minutes of initial publication,” he said