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.
But a police source said such a possibility could not be ruled out.
The team managing the page tended to be "liberal" about comments, the source said.
"If you delete [inappropriate comments] too frequently, it would only attract more people to comment, because they would think it's fun.
"Now the page gets fewer negative comments, in fact."
Yesterday afternoon, comments that contained swear words in both English and Chinese could still be seen an hour after being posted on the page.
Only "a small proportion" of comments had needed to be removed so far, the source said, adding that the administrators had not felt it necessary to employ Facebook tools that automatically banned keywords deemed inappropriate.
A disclaimer on the page read: "HKP may not reply to all comments on this page. Postings of foul language, violence and threats, bullying and harassment, abusive and insulting, sexual description, infringement of privacy, illegal activities or advertisement, etc will be removed."
The number of "likes" the page has gathered has stagnated.
After its launch on October 5, it garnered 45,000 in four days. However, it then took the page four weeks to get an extra 3,000 "likes".
The total was about 48,800 as of last night.
Strong words left on Facebook page of Hong Kong police
Most comments that stay on the police Facebook page are free of expletives, though quite a number express rather strong emotions whether supportive or critical of the force. Below are some examples, translated into English, which were allowed to stay on the page for more than 10 hours.
- Support the black cops! Bravo! [The force] has learned its lesson from the mainland police! Rapist! Arsonist! Thugs!
- Those yellow [the signature colour for supporters of the Occupy protests] bitches should stop drinking the Communist Party's "faeces-filled" Dongjiang water [the city's major source of water from the mainland] if they have the guts! Stupid!
- The wife of 689 [a reference to the number of votes Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying received in the 2012 election] was slapped in the face but j*** off is all you slave dogs [police] have been doing. Is this how you repay your master's kindness?
