Hong Kong has asked Google to alter its search results for the city’s national anthem. AFP (Representational Image)
Google has refused to alter its search results to display China’s national anthem, instead of a protest song, when people search for Hong Kong’s national anthem.
This comes after the Hong Kong government urged the tech giant to showChinese national anthem March of the Volunteers when keywords like “Hong Kong” and “national anthem” were searched.
How did the row erupt over Hong Kong’s ‘national anthem’? What has the city’s government said? Why has Google turned down Hong Kong’s request? Let’s take a closer look.
‘Glory to Hong Kong’
The song, Glory to Hong Kong, gained prominence during the 2019 pro-democracy protests in the city.
The four-verse song – which talks about “tears on our land” and “democracy and liberty” – was “banned” in 2020 after China introduced national security law in the financial hub, as per Reuters.
The row over the unofficial anthem of the protests in Hong Kong erupted this year after it was played at a number of sporting events overseas.
Last month, at the men’s final of a sevens rugby tournament in South Korea’s Incheon, Glory to Hong Kong was played instead of the Chinese national anthem.
China introduced national security law in Hong Kong in 2020, a year after pro-democracy protests. AP File Photo
The Asia Rugby association had admitted the mistake and blamed “a simple human error” for downloading the wrong song from the internet, reported Reuters.
Police are probing whether the anthem mix-up in South Korea violated the city’s national security law. The law criminalises any act of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
The anthem was also “labelled incorrectly” in a broadcast graphic at two rugby matches, as per Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspaper.
In another similar instance, Glory to Hong Kong was played for weightlifter Susanna Lin at an awards ceremony in Dubai.
When “Hong Kong national anthem” is searched on Google, the top English results show Wikipedia pages. The first page says, “There is no official anthem which represents only Hong Kong”, adding that the “national anthem of China, March of the Volunteers, serves officially as the regional anthem of Hong Kong”.
The second Wikipedia result shows Glory to Hong Kong with the text saying that some have dubbed it the “national anthem of Hong Kong.”
ALSO READ: Google has ‘moral obligation’ to replace protest song with national anthem: Hong Kong leader
Hong Kong govt fumes
Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, said on Tuesday (13 December) that he will call on Google to display China’s national anthem as the top result in searches for the city’s anthem.
“There are ways to do it, it’s a matter of whether a company acts responsibly and respect the importance of (a) national anthem in the global context,” he was quoted as saying by Associated Press (AP).
Calling it a “moral issue”, Lee said, “Setting aside its legal status, the national anthem represents the dignity and feelings of a country and its people.”
“It’s a moral issue. I believe any responsible institution must take it seriously”, he stated as per The Washington Post.
His comments came a day after Hong Kong’s security chief Chris Tang said Google has refused the request to replace the Glory to Hong Kong protest anthem with China’s national anthem.
As per Tang, who called the justification “unconvincing”, the tech giant said that search results are generated by an algorithm and did not have human input, reported BBC.
“We have approached Google to request that they put the correct national anthem at the top of their search results, but unfortunately Google refused,” Tang said, as per Reuters.
“We felt great regret and this has hurt the feelings of Hong Kong people” he added.
Hong Kong govt wants Google to display China’s national anthem as top results as the city’s national anthem. AFP (Representational Image)
Further, Tang emphasised that “there is only one national anthem. Other wrong things will always remain wrong no matter how much you talk about it”, The Washington Post reported.
Beijing also weighed in on the controversy and backed the Hong Kong government’s actions “upholding the dignity of the national anthem”.
As per The Washington Post, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that “internet companies are obliged to convey the correct information to the public, rather than allow false information to spread”.
In 2020, Hong Kong’s legislature had passed a bill to criminalise disrespect of March of the Volunteers. The song was ratified as the national anthem in 2004, as per South China Morning Post.
Hong Kong is a former British colony, which was handed over to China in 1997. The semi-autonomous region has its own customs territory and legal system, notes AP.
However, in recent years, communist-ruled mainland China has bolstered its influence over Hong Kong and ramped up a crackdown on pro-democracy activists and protesters.
Google responds
Google has reacted to the anthem row, saying it does not “manipulate organic web listings”.
“Google handles billions of search queries every day, so we build ranking systems to automatically surface relevant, high quality, and helpful information,” the company told AFP news agency.
“We do not manually manipulate organic web listings to determine the ranking of a specific page,” it added.
Elaborating on how it decides on blocking or removing search results, a spokesperson of the tech giant told South China Morning Post, “In keeping with our commitment to maximise access to information, we do not remove web results except for specific reasons outlined in our global policy documentation”.
With inputs from agencies
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