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Censoring the Metaverse

Written by Dalia Parete on . Posted in News and Trends.

A post by the Hong Kong independent media outlet Boom News (爆炸頭) commemorating the 14th anniversary this past week of the death of Tiananmen activist Li Wangyang (李旺阳) was removed from social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta.

The posts commemorated Li, a labor organizer and pioneering advocate for independent trade unionism in China who played a leading role in the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement. After 22 years in Chinese prisons, Li was released in 2012 in such poor health that he required immediate hospitalization. He was found dead in his hospital room on June 6 of that year. Authorities ruled his death a suicide and cremated his body without his family’s consent.

Meta offered no public explanation for the takedowns and also permanently terminated the outlet’s monetization on both platforms. The removal coincides with growing restrictions on commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, not only in China, where any reference to June 4 is prohibited and removed from the internet, but also in Hong Kong, where authorities have arrested people for posting about the anniversary on social media and a once-massive annual candlelight vigil is no longer allowed.

Boom News is a YouTube-based platform focusing on Hong Kong stories, with close to 50,000 subscribers on the platform.

Relaying Global News for Hong Kong

Written by David Bandurski on . Posted in News and Trends.

With the space for authentic journalism and media activity in Hong Kong constantly under pressure, the launch of any new outlet is a reason to sit up and take notice — even if the founders are, by their own admission, “not journalism professionals.”

On May 1, a new outlet called The Relay (接力者) announced its formation on Threads and Instagram. The outlet is run by a small volunteer team describing themselves as Hong Kong enthusiasts of history and current affairs.

Their model sounds straightforward enough: summarize and translate reporting and commentary from European and American newspapers and magazines, primarily English and German-language sources. The idea is to make these stories accessible to Chinese-language readers, with all sources openly offered for transparency. The outlet is searching for extra hands to help summarize foreign reporting and design social media posts. “The Relay is sincerely recruiting volunteers interested in history and current affairs to join our team,” read the post on Threads.

It is unclear whether the outlet is geographically anchored in Hong Kong, or whether the team is working remotely across borders. What is clear is that the founders are motivated to find a new way toward “balanced” coverage in a difficult landscape. “We feel that today’s social media is oversaturated, and digital media is becoming increasingly fragmented and sensationalist,” the founders wrote in their launch statement. “Although we aren’t journalism professionals, we hope to do our best to present balanced international news and information to Chinese-speaking readers.”