Our legislators fail when it comes to social networks

It may have been a powerful weapon that helped mobilise protesters to topple tyrannical governments in the Middle East, but in Hong Kong politics, the social media is more like notice boards.

'The things that our lawmakers put up, if any, are usually boring. You'd be lucky if you did not fall asleep looking at them,' said political commentator Martin Oei.

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs are massively popular in Hong Kong, but legislators don't use them to good effect. A survey by the Community Development Initiative shows that nine lawmakers in the 60-strong Legislative Council - all from the pro-government camp - don't even have a basic personal homepage. Forty have a Facebook account or a blog, while 11 have their own website.

Many of the web pages just have announcements and visitors can't comment or share content.