Google’s Hong Kong team should appear in legislature to answer for anthem search results, top government adviser Regina Ip says
- Exco convenor warns if internet giant turns down invitation, lawmakers could invoke special powers to summon representatives
- Row centres on recent mix-ups at international sporting events, with foreign organisers claiming protest song is top online search result for ‘anthem’ keyword
The management of Google’s team in Hong Kong should be called to the Legislative Council to explain the internet giant’s inability to place the Chinese national anthem as a top search result for certain keywords, a top government adviser has said.
New People’s Party chairwoman Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, convenor of the Executive Council, a key decision-making body, on Sunday said she would write to Legco president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen and ask him to invite the relevant company representative to answer questions from lawmakers.
Ip added she would seek to invoke special powers to summon Google heads to the legislature if they turned down the invitation.
Last month, as the Hong Kong rugby team competed in South Korea’s Incheon, “Glory to Hong Kong”, a song popular with protesters during the 2019 anti-government unrest, was played instead of national anthem “March of the Volunteers”.
Korean organisers apologised for the incident, claiming the wrong song was downloaded and used because it was a popular online search result for “Hong Kong anthem”. Pro-establishment politicians then urged Google to rectify the issue and direct users to the Chinese national anthem.
Ip on Sunday said if local Google chiefs declined Leung’s invitation, she would ask the House Committee to invoke the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance and summon them.
“If they ignore the summons, a warrant can be issued. It’s a criminal offence and offenders can be jailed up to 12 months,” she warned.
Ip added that the council’s majority support was needed to call on the ordinance.
Court convicts Hong Kong man over social media posts including anthem mix-up clips
Another Exco member, the Liberal Party’s Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, had also expressed support for invoking the legislation.
He added that authorities would question the company again, threatening to pull all ads from the search engine unless it took relevant action.
Hong Kong police alerted after protest song edited into clip of 2010 baseball match
Security minister Chris Tang Ping-keung on Wednesday said authorities would do “everything it takes” to fix the perceived problem.
The political storm erupted after a series of mix-ups at international sporting events in which the protest song was played instead of the national anthem. Earlier “March of the Volunteers” was incorrectly labelled “Glory to Hong Kong” during the broadcast of two televised rugby matches.
Google said it had no further comment.
