Hong Kong youth's conviction upheld for hijacking news app notifications

A young man who sent out a series of bizarre and false push notifications through the TVB News mobile app has lost his appeal against a criminal damage conviction. The High Court on Friday upheld the original verdict, ruling that he knowingly misused the internal system after gaining access through a mistakenly shared link.

Unauthorised access and false messages

The case dates back to a chaotic 21-minute period in mid-2022, when users of the TVB News app received 23 highly unusual push notifications. 

It was later revealed that Shik Chun-hay, who was 20 at the time, had managed to log into the broadcaster's internal content management system. 

This access was gained via a link that had been erroneously sent out by a TVB employee.

Once inside the system, Shik sent five notifications with strange content, including messages that simply read "Test" and "Lee Ka Chiu meets reporters." He was subsequently charged and found guilty of criminal damage, receiving a sentence of 200 hours of community service.

The appeal and the court's rejection

Shik appealed the conviction, arguing that he believed he was authorized to use the system because the link granted him automatic access. He disputed the original magistrate's finding that he had acted with criminal intent.

However, in his judgment on Friday, Deputy High Court Judge Edmond Lee Chun-man rejected these arguments and dismissed the appeal. 

The judge affirmed that the TVB push notification system is the private property of the broadcaster, intended only for use by authorized internal staff and managed on TVB's servers.

Lee pointed out that Xue was not a TVB employee and had sent messages that were clearly unusual and false. The judge stated that Xue knowingly misused the computer system, acting against its designed purpose of delivering genuine news. 

His intent to damage property was further evidenced by the fact that he later deleted his browser history in an attempt to "destroy the evidence."

The court also reasoned that as someone who had used the TVB News app since 2019, Shik would have been familiar with its normal notifications and would have undoubtedly known that the link he accessed led to an internal system not meant for public use. 

Concluding that the evidence was sufficient, the judge upheld the original conviction and sentence.