No more ‘secrets’ in Hong Kong? Facebook pages for anonymous rants, comments shut following national security law arrests
- Those behind online groups for anonymous rants, comments and gossip choose to ‘stay clear of danger’
- Police’s use of national security law sends a chill through online crowd afraid of crossing ‘red lines’
Several Hong Kong community “confession pages” have disappeared from Facebook following Tuesday’s arrest of two administrators of the Civil Servant Secrets page on the social media platform.
They include pages for anonymous comments by students of six universities, employees of the Hospital Authority, which runs the city’s public healthcare facilities, and concerned parents.
The “secrets” pages allow members of a community to comment on various issues, complain or gossip anonymously. Their entries are collected via an online form, which anonymous page administrators then post on the public Facebook page.
As of Thursday, at least eight such pages could no longer be accessed. These were for parents, Hospital Authority employees and students of Chinese University (CUHK), the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Baptist University, Polytechnic University, City University and the University of Science and Technology.
Commenting on the arrests, Leung Chau-ting, chairman of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, said: “I was shocked, as this platform was seen as a source of entertainment among colleagues for rants and chatter. The government is sending a sign of deterrence to civil servants.”