China pulls rank on Hong Kong as Facebook posts page for National Party

San Francisco/Hong Kong — Facebook finds itself entangled in yet another political spat — this time with China, a market the social media giant is seeking to enter.

Police in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous part of China, have asked the company to remove the official page of the pro-independence National Party, which was slapped with an unprecedented government ban this week. The prohibition pledges fines and imprisonment for those aiding the group. Hong Kong officials made their request of Facebook after the measure was announced on Monday, according to the South China Morning Post.

The move to ban the National Party, which the government calls a risk to national security, is fueling concerns that Hong Kong’s administration wants to set a precedent for clamping down on opposition groups, eroding the city’s autonomy under the “one country, two systems” framework in place since Chinese rule began in 1997. The request also puts the California-based social media company in a difficult position, and refusal could hamper any future efforts to expand in China.

While China censors media outlets and bans Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet’s Google on the mainland, Hong Kong has relatively fewer restrictions on the press and the internet. The party’s Facebook page remained visible as of Wednesday afternoon, Hong Kong time.

A Facebook spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. It’s not clear whether Hong Kong police asked Twitter or Google’s YouTube to remove the party’s official pages from their sites.

National Party leader Andy Chan declined to comment, but siad that he hadn’t used the party’s Facebook page since it was banned. “I am going to call a press conference soon and I will answer all your questions then,” he said, and indicated that he’ll use his personal Facebook page to announce the date.

Hong Kong’s request also comes at a fraught moment for Facebook, which has dealt with waves of criticism in the US and Europe over its handling of political content. Following reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections, Facebook and other tech companies have faced mounting scrutiny over content moderation decisions. At a recent US senate hearing, lawmakers chastised the social media company and other Silicon Valley giants, including Google, for their willingness to collaborate with China.

Facebook may be keen to avoid inflaming tensions in China. Earlier this year, its attempt to open an “innovation hub” in the country was blocked.

Communist concerns

In China, the ruling Communist Party views any comments on Hong Kong’s affairs by foreign governments as an infringement of its own sovereignty. “Certain countries and institutions have made irresponsible remarks on the Hong Kong special administrative regions government’s ban on the operation of the Hong Kong National Party,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said on Tuesday. “We express strong dissatisfaction with and firm opposition to this.”

Hong Kong’s push to ban the National Party immediately drew criticism from US officials, amid an escalating trade dispute between the two countries. US state department spokesperson Heather Nauert responded to Geng with a tweet on behalf of US secretary of state Michael Pompeo.

“We are concerned by the #HongKong government’s decision to ban the Hong Kong National Party,” the tweet said. “The US supports the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association. These are core values we share with Hong Kong, and that must be vigorously protected.”

Facebook has removed pages and posts that violate its policies on hate speech. In March, it blacklisted UK political party Britain First for “repeatedly [posting] content designed to incite animosity and hatred against minority groups.”

The company does not list a clear policy for how to treat banned political parties. But it could point to inflammatory political speech as a loophole.

In July — the day after Hong Kong’s government first proposed a ban on the National Party — the party wrote a Facebook post encouraging supporters “to fight back and drive out the Chinese colonisers”. Three days before President Xi Jinping arrived in the city in June 2017 to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover, another post on its official page featured an image of a fist smashing a grasshopper. The accompanying text read: “Crush the Chinese Colonisers!”

Bloomberg