Hong Kong: Dispute over protest song – Google refuses to adjust search results

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Protesters singing "Glory to Hong Kong" (here in 2019): Authorities see the song as problematic

Photo by Kin Cheung/ AP

Google appears to be resisting pressure from the Hong Kong government to change its search results on Hong Kong's national anthem.

The BBC reports, citing the AFP news agency.

"Google processes billions of searches every day, so we build ranking systems to automatically display relevant, high-quality, and helpful information," the company said.

"We don't manually manipulate the organic web lists to determine a particular page's ranking."

The background to these general statements is a political dispute.

If you search for the national anthem of Hong Kong on Google, you will often find a reference to the song “Glory to Hong Kong”, a protest song from 2019, at the top – the search results are sometimes adapted to the respective user.

Hong Kong's government would prefer the prominent position to refer to the Chinese national anthem, the so-called March of the Volunteers.

"Glory to Hong Kong" was recently played as the city's anthem at several sporting events - including a rugby tournament in South Korea and a powerlifting match in Dubai.

According to the BBC, the Asian Rugby Union said employees downloaded the wrong song after looking at the top search result for the search term "Hong Kong national anthem".

Hong Kong Prime Minister John Lee said the dispute was about whether a company was acting responsibly and respecting the importance of the national anthem in a global context.

The head of Hong Kong's security agency is angry

The song "Glory to Hong Kong" is not illegal in Hong Kong per se.

But authorities have said the phrase "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times" - a popular protest slogan found in a similar form in the song's lyrics - is seen as separatist and subversive under a controversial national security law.

Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang accused Google of using double standards.

As evidence, he cited the company's response to a ruling by the European Court of Justice that required the company to remove links to information about individuals if they could prove the information was untrue.

In a first statement by Google on the verdict, it was said that the company welcomed the decision and would now deal with the details.

Google has now said it is in contact with the Hong Kong government to explain "how our platforms and removal policies work".

Do not remove any results "except for specific reasons detailed in our global policy documentation".

Hong Kong is a former British colony and semi-autonomous region of China.

The Chinese leadership has pledged to respect civil liberties and the way of life in Hong Kong for at least half a century from 1997 onwards.

In recent years, however, China has expanded its influence in the area.

Many protagonists of the protest movement are in prison, large demonstrations are now unthinkable, critical media have given up, the election laws have been changed.

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