Lee slams YouTube over election channel ban

Chief executive candidate John Lee Ka-chiu expressed disappointment as he slammed Google's move to terminate his campaign channel on YouTube, citing a breach of the tech giant's policy under United States sanctions.

But Lee told a press briefing yesterday the YouTube ban will not affect his campaign as he can still explain his governing philosophy through other means.

Lee, the former chief secretary for administration and secretary for security, is among more than a dozen local and mainland officials sanctioned by Washington in 2020 over allegations that they had helped undermine Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy.

"The so-called sanctions against me are unreasonable and are behaviors of a bully which are intended to exert pressure on me, to make me doubt myself," Lee said. "But I have stressed many times that their unreasonable acts only convince me that what I'm doing is right. Therefore I will ignore those sanctions. They're not worth my attention."

His comments came hours after the online video sharing platform, a subsidiary of Google, made the rare move in taking down Lee's channel yesterday.

In response to The Standard's inquiries, a Google spokesman said the company complies with applicable US sanctions and enforces related policies under its terms of services.

"After review and consistent with these policies, we terminated the Johnlee2022 YouTube channel," the spokesman said.

However, users of Google will still be able to look for Lee's name via the search engine.

Tam Yiu-chung, director of Lee's campaign office, said the ban is "unreasonable, but irreversible."

He added that the ban will not affect Lee's campaign and the dissemination of campaign information.

Lee had started using YouTube this week when he communicated online with the Election Committee, filled predominantly with pro-Beijing members, while broadcasting their meetings via his YouTube channel and Facebook page.

A spokesman for Meta - parent company of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, also based in the US - said Lee can continue using his Facebook page and Instagram account.

"But we have taken measures to ensure that there will be no monetary transactions during the usage of Lee's Facebook page and Instagram account," the spokesman said.

Francis Fong Po-kiu, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, said it is up to companies' own consideration whether to follow suit. "

It is up to the companies' legal department in their US headquarters whether to follow the policies or government orders," he added.

As Lee will no longer be able to use YouTube services, Fong said there are a lot of substitutes from mainland corporations, including WeChat, Weibo and bilibili, which provide communications and video services, and he believes Lee will choose a tool suitable for him.

A technology and innovation sector lawmaker, Duncan Chiu, said it is unhealthy that technology is being politicized as it reduces the communication between people and countries. "In the past few years, different countries have started trade embargoes, which benefited no one. The world should have more communication," Chiu said.

"The technology sector should filter some content which has a consensus in the world, including inciting violence and discrimination, but if the filtering of content is prompted by political stance, it is not a healthy development," he added.

Fellow lawmaker Holden Chow Ho-ding from the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong called on the SAR government to lodge representations against YouTube.

"The move involves foreign forces blatantly interfering with Hong Kong's election," Chow said. "I am strongly condemning the social media platform which completely turned a blind eye to the importance of a fair and just election."