Hong Kong residents who repeatedly repost overseas online criticism of domestic national security law could breach provisions if they incite hatred of authorities
- Justice secretary Paul Lam outlines scenarios where people could breach new domestic national security law
- But he says that prosecutors will evaluate every case to see if it meets threshold for endangering national security
In a televised interview on Sunday, Paul Lam Ting-kwok outlined scenarios where people could risk falling foul of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which came into force the day before.
One was whether reposts of overseas criticism could be considered as seditious intent. Sedition is one of the major offences stipulated in the law, mandated by Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
“If someone repeatedly reposts them online, expressing strong agreement and adds comments underneath that purely aim to incite people’s hatred towards both the Hong Kong and the central government, there are risks [of violating the law], of course,” Lam, also a barrister, said.
“[Some people] might repeatedly circulate [the criticisms] online. Is this driven by a quest for truth, curiosity or a desire for relief? It’s challenging for me to discern the mens rea [guilty thought] at this point.”