National anthem blunder: Hong Kong authorities must get Google to fix search results problem, sports federation says after latest mix-up
- Pui Kwan-kay, honorary vice-president of city’s Olympic committee, says solution to problem is to ensure wrong song no longer placed high up in search engine results
- Google previously said it did not ‘manually manipulate organic web listings to determine the ranking of a specific page’ and results would not be taken down
Hong Kong’s sports federation has urged the government to again try to intervene with internet giant Google to ensure the Chinese national anthem appears as the top search result for certain keywords, after a protest song was used once more at an international match.
The renewed call came after the 2019 protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” rather than national anthem “March of the Volunteers” was played following the city team’s defeat of Iran at the 2023 Ice Hockey World Championship Division III in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday.
Pui Kwan-kay, honorary vice-president of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, on Thursday said that although he did not have first-hand information he believed the latest blunder was caused by “careless” staff downloading the wrong tune from the internet.
He said the solution to the problem was to ensure the wrong song would no longer be placed high up in search engine results.
“The government has a responsibility to continue liaising with the service provider to ensure the correct national anthem of Hong Kong, China should be placed at the top,” he said, referring to Google.
A Post check found that a Wikipedia article on “Glory to Hong Kong” remains the top result in a Google search of “Hong Kong national anthem”, the same as in November.
The second result leads to the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau website, which directs users to a page elaborating on the national anthem ordinance, as well as a “standard score and official recording” of the song, without specifying its name as “March of the Volunteers”.