Google ignores HK bid to remove 88 items

Authorities had asked search engine giant Google to remove 183 items from its platforms in the second half of last year - including 55 said to be harmful to national security - but the request for 88 items was ignored, according to the latest Google Transparency Report.

The report showed that Google received 56 requests from the SAR government to take down 183 items - including 130 on YouTube - between July 1 and December 31.

The Hong Kong police raised 128 items, or 70 percent. The data protection authority raised 48 items, while the consumer watchdog made three requests.

Websites and data involving the children's drawing book Sheep Village - created by a pro-democratic speech therapist union - were among the 55 items said to be harmful to national security.

"We received two requests from the Hong Kong police to remove one Google Sites page and three Google Drive folder URLs that contained a series of books titled Sheep Village," Google said.

"The police claimed that the books had been considered seditious publications by the District Court and that displaying or reproducing the content is an offense under the Crimes Ordinance, Cap 200," it added.

Google said it did not take action but the content no longer appeared on Google Sites since January.

Five speech therapists of the defunct General Union of Hong Kong Speech Therapists - Lai Man-ling, 26, Melody Yeung Yat-yee, 27, Ng Hau-yi, 28, Samuel Chan Yuen-sum, 25, and Marco Fong Tsz-ho, 26 - were jailed for 19 months by district judge Kwok Wai-kin last September for conspiracy to publish and distribute seditious publications that hint at social events.

Kwok said in his judgment that children will be told by the books that they are the sheep and the wolves trying to harm them are China and Hong Kong. The proscribed effects of the books "intended to result in the mind of children," he added.

Google also received 12 requests from police to take down 26 Google Ads that were claimed to be impersonating high-ranking government officials in an attempt to defraud users and steal personal information. The search engine removed 19 ads that were found to violate its policies.

Police also asked Google to remove three apps from the Play Store, claiming they "defrauded users and allegedly engaged in the crime of Obtaining Property by Deception" which breached the Theft Ordinance.

"One of the apps was claimed to be a fake cryptocurrency exchange platform and the other two were said to be scams offering a fake part-time job in earning commissions from online purchases," Google said.

The search engine later took down two apps from its Play Store for violating its policy, but was unable to locate the content of the other app.

Google explained that content may not be removed upon a request due to many reasons. "Some requests may not be specific enough (such as not having a URL is listed in the request) or the content might have already been removed by the author," it said.

The company also said not all court orders included with requests directly compel it to take action.

Hong Kong police would not comment on individual cases, but said they would request relevant people or organizations to cooperate during investigations.

sophie.hui@singtaonewscorp.com