Police detain protesters during a rally against the postponement of the Legislative Council Elections in Hong Kong, China, September 6, 2020. YouTube pulled the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” during those rallies. File Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA-EFE
“Glory to Hong Kong” the popular protest song that became synonymous with the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong in 2019 was pulled this week from YouTube after an appeals court win for the region’s government.
Google, which owns YouTube, said it would abide by the court order to ban the song, which has been outlawed by the government since 2020, at the urging of Hong Kong officials. Advertisement
“We are disappointed by the court’s decision but are complying with its removal order by blocking access to the listed videos for viewers in Hong Kong,” a YouTube representative told CNN. “We’ll continue to consider our options for an appeal, to promote access to information.”
In all, 32 videos containing the song were replaced on YouTube. In its place, a message said “This content is not available on this country’s domain due to a court order.” Spotify, though, has kept up some forms of the song in Hong Kong.
A Hong Kong songwriter with the pseudonym “Thomas” released “Glory to Hong Kong” on YouTube on Aug. 31, 2019, during the massive pro-democracy protests. It was quickly adopted by the demonstrators and others supporting democracy in Hong Kong. Advertisement
Since then, the Hong Kong government, which has become more aligned with Beijing, has been trying to restrict its playing. Earlier this month a Hong Kong appeals court overturned a lower court ruling, saying the government had the power to ban the song.
Hong Kong authorities had cited security reasons for its banning, saying that it incites “violence and disturbances.”
