Hong Kong\u2019s leader said Tuesday his administration would keep monitoring for any non-compliance with a court order that bans a popular protest song, days after YouTube blocked access to dozens of videos of the tune in the city. The ban targets anyone who broadcasts or distributes \u201cGlory to Hong Kong\u201d \u2013 popularly sung during huge anti-government protests in 2019 \u2013 to advocate for the separation of the city from China. It also prohibits any actions that misrepresent the song as the national anthem with the intent to insult the anthem.<\/p>\n
In his weekly news briefing, Chief Executive John Lee said if the government found any instances of non-compliance, it would then notify the relevant internet platforms about the content of the injunction. \u201cI believe that operators in general operate within the law, so we will continue to monitor the situation,\u201d Lee said. The court ban sought by the government has raised concerns over a further decline in the city\u2019s freedom of expression and internet freedom. Critics have also warned it might disrupt the operation of tech giants and undermine the city\u2019s appeal as a global financial hub.<\/p>\n
Last week, YouTube blocked access to 32 videos of the song that were deemed to be \u201cprohibited publications\u201d under the injunction for viewers in the city. The tech company said it was disappointed by the court\u2019s decision and would continue to consider its options for an appeal. In the news briefing, Lee said there is no link relating to the song shown on any local platforms and \u201cGoogle\u2019s search doesn\u2019t show any link to the song in question.\u201d The Associated Press found videos of the song on YouTube on Tuesday morning. The song is also available on Spotify and Apple Music.<\/p>\n
It is unclear whether the tech giants will block access to more video or audio clips of the song for Hong Kong viewers. Google, Spotify and Apple did not immediately comment. \u201cGlory to Hong Kong\u201d is widely seen as the protest anthem of the 2019 movement, which was followed by a crackdown that has all but erased dissenting voices in the city. Instances where the song was mistakenly played as the city\u2019s anthem at international sporting events, instead of China\u2019s national anthem \u201cMarch of the Volunteers,\u201d also have angered city officials. The government went to the court last year after Google resisted pressure to display China\u2019s national anthem as the top result in searches for the city\u2019s anthem instead of the protest song.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hong Kong\u2019s leader said Tuesday his administration would keep monitoring for any non-compliance with a court order that bans a\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":44905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[14235,284,14237,158,277,2760,13993,6081,14236,14234,9128],"class_list":["post-44904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-anti-government-protests","tag-apple","tag-chief-executive-john-lee","tag-china","tag-google","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kongs-national-security-act","tag-monitoring","tag-non-compliance","tag-protest-song","tag-spotify"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}