The 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests happened as a result of the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill. Some observed that it is an extension to the 2014 Umbrella Movement, and there are other underlying issues that amounted to such explosive protest, which cover the economic, social and environmental aspects. With the Chinese Government's attempt in turning Hong Kong to a semi-authoritarian regime, it sparked Hong Kong people's dissent as the Chinese Government's intervention would threaten the Rule of Law in Hong Kong.'Umbrellas Up', This American Life (USA, 18 October 2019) <https://www.thisamericanlife.org/686/umbrellas-up >'Umbrellas Down', This American Life (USA, 10 July 2020) <https://www.thisamericanlife.org/710/umbrellas-down > Thus, people in Hong Kong shown their resistance through protesting, and planning through the use of social media have facilitated the social movements.
A variety of social media platforms were first used in 2014 when the Umbrella Movement took place. The platforms were once utilised again in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests by local protestors, as well as domestic and international spectators. Different online applications have been used for the organization and mobilization of protesters, censorship of information, international recognition and solidarity, and as a platform for global responses.
The Hong Kong Protests are considered as 'no centralised platform' and people support the protests by self-joining. Social Media has been called and used as a battleground for public opinion on the Hong Kong Protests because the costs of communications are lowered and they provide space for counterpublic communication. Examples of these social media platforms include Facebook, and Twitter.
It is prevalent for users of these platforms to communicate in "Kongish", the language of Romanised Cantonese and English, which is understood only by Hong Kong people and further the identity of being a HongKonger. Sometimes, online humour is used on social media platforms to express users' dissent towards the Hong Kong government, for example, it is shown through memes. Also, social media users may combine the element of art with social media and create graphics in transmitting protest information.'The Documentary: Behind the Hong Kong Protests', BBC News, (Hong Kong, 15 March 2020) <https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct0h73 >
These social media platforms allows users to stay anonymous, and allows sustainable mobilisation of information and discussions, it is why the protests could continue even without a centralised organisation. It is suggested that the usage of social media has been intensified by the several factors, such as disinformation and misinformation, anonymity, and public support given to students from parties outside Hong Kong. It is especially because of anonymity, social psychology explains that people tend to utilise social media in planning the protests and vandalism, which is why political engagements are happening at an increasing rate with the use of social media. All in all, social media has been used to shape protests attitudes and solidify relationships. The connections between people arises when a controversial issue arises. However, it is also observed that opinions on social media may lead to polarisation in attitudes before and after the protests.
Since most traditional media have been co-opted by the Hong Kong and Chinese Government, it has become increasingly important for the new social media platforms to appear in the media landscape in sharing unfiltered real-time information to the protestors. While social media platforms contribute to the planning and networking of the protests, it is inevitable that public nature of social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook made users more suspectable and vulnerable to state surveillance. Thus, users of such platforms have evacuated to safer, encrypted platforms for continuing discussions.
Academics have noted that the Anti-ELAB protest is similar to other movements globally, such as the Arab Spring uprisings, the Spanish Indignados movement, and Turkey's Gezi Park protests because of a flat organisational structure.
Hong Kong YouTube YouTube is banned in mainland China, but is extremely useful for people in Hong Kong to spread news and information on YouTube channels. It offers a safe platform for people to express their disapproval through video and media footages.
In September 2019, the actor Wong Hei created and posted a series of videos onto his personal YouTube Channel called "Baton", which is meant to reveal some of the HKPF's fault in alleged police misbehaviours. The series of videos have received hundreds and thousands of views, which subsequently led to Wong's participation in another series of production by RTHK in February 2020, namely "Headliner". These videos produced by RTHK were later suspended by the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau as it was said to have 'insulted' the police.
Telegram Telegram is a cloud-based software that allows users to send encrypted messages that cloak the user's identity. It was used by Hong Kong protest organizers to discuss protest logistics in large group chats. The app hosts thousands of protests in hundreds of group chats to discuss updates regarding times and locations of protests to building access codes allowing protests to hide from tear gas. Previously, the app allowed individuals to match user pseudonyms to entries in their contact list, but Telegram disabled this feature, allowing users to remain anonymous from Chinese and Hong Kong government officials.
For example, the "HK Confirmed Sight-ings Channel" offers users the platform to share sightings of Police officers and their locations, providing protestors real-time information so that protestors can immediately change their locations and tactics in confronting the Police Officers. Similarly, "Dad Finds Boy" is another channel which offers a platform for doxxing police information, which has been banned from further usage due to personal privacy reasons after thousands of family pictures, phone numbers and personal addressed have been leaked publicly.
Telegram grew 323% year-over-year in July 2019 in Hong Kong, adding 110,000 new users as opposed to 26,000 in July 2018.
WhatsApp/Signal Similar to Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal are both used as a platform for protestors to exchange information on where and when they will be protesting. It also provided information of first aid stations and requests for supplies for front liners' use.
Airdrop AirDrop is another medium through which protesters have communicated logistical plans. Users go into large crowded public areas and airdrop information to anyone who has their receiving settings enabled. Airdrop has also been a way through which information has been distributed to mainland China. The messages are written in simplified Chinese (Hong Kong uses traditional characters) which hints that the intended audience of the messages are mainlanders. In some cases, protesters would provide a QR code advertised as a method of payment. Scanning the image, however, would then trigger the airdrop of the desired information onto their device.
LIHKG LIHKG, a Chinese language Reddit-like online forum website has been developed as a backbone of the protests and has been used for transmitting schedules and sharing strategies with other forum users. It is noted that LIHKG is an efficient online tool in facilitating the protests because users can use the voting system and it would automatically move popular threads up with which allow more users to view the post. This platform also shows a democratic approach because the users could state their preference in what they want to read. The ability to unify people and apparent as this forum is public and it facilitated the leadership and feedback of protestors. Its quality of being momentary and real-time influenced 'collective intelligence' in preparing for the protests.
Mainland China Weibo Weibo, known as "China's Twitter," has most users from mainland China. It is a public community for Chinese citizens, where they have a relatively large amount of freedom of speech, but are still restricted to use some predefined "sensitive words." Any post which contains these "sensitive words" will be automatically deleted by Weibo officials; moreover, sometimes the account would be banned entirely.
During the Hong Kong protest, Weibo, just like Twitter, had its own hashtag where people gathered together to express their opinions. The most popular hashtag was called "Hong Kong Riot" instead of "Hong Kong Protest" or "StandWithHongKong", which are common hashtags in Hong Kong and internationally. Other trending hashtags include "Protect Hong Kong" and "Officers, We Support You". Another trending topic was Officer Liu, a police officer who was beaten during one of the protests on 31 July. Images of him, photos of the incident, posts by the Chinese state media, and his own Weibo posts have gone viral. Content in support of the Hong Kong police became very popular during this time.
Although Weibo is the most famous social media platform where people can interact with others, the Chinese government still plays a very important role in this community. Unlike the official accounts for governments on Twitter, the government-controlled Weibo accounts, such as the Communist Youth League or People's Daily, are actually playing a role that is a combination of law enforcement and direct speaker for policy makers. Thus, most of the information on Weibo about the 2019 Hong Kong Protests will not be representative of the views of the protesters, as the channel for speaking the perspective is prohibited. Similar to survivor bias, the posts that remain on the discussion page are preselected.
WeChat WeChat known as the international version of Weixin is where users are distinguished from each other through mobile numbers used in registration for either WeChat or Weixin accounts. Because Hong Kong is under the Weixin server, users in Hong Kong who have a Hong Kong phone number would be registered under the Weixin server. Weixin users are those who have registered using mainland China's mobile phone numbers, while other users are categorized in WeChat servers. Because WeChat's servers are outside of China and are not subject to Chinese law, while Weixin servers are in China and are subject to Chinese law, each individual's data is stored in different locations. As Hong Kong is under the Weixin server, the Hong Kong protests are more censored in mainland China. According to the WeChat privacy guidelines, collecting sensitive information from users is meant to meet relevant laws and regulations of the identity verification network system requirements in China. Therefore, all users within Hong Kong and mainland China must be registered that matches the laws and identity verification to access Weixin and those who do not have a Hong Kong number will then be registered under WeChat.
Mainland China's Reaction to the usage of Weixin in Hong Kong protest