Hong Kong Protests: Man Arrested Over Alleged Online Messages
Police Arrest Man for Allegedly Posting Messages Urging People to Gather at Hong Kong Protest Site
Riot police officers stand guard in front of protesters at a pro-democracy protest encampment in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong early Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014. Vincent Yu/Associated Press
By Gillian Wong
Oct. 19, 2014 12:51 a.m. ET
HONG KONG—A man was arrested for allegedly posting messages online that urged people to gather and agitate at a protest site, police said Sunday.
The move—one of the first such arrests during three weeks of demonstrations here—could potentially chill the protesters’ use of the Internet and social media to mobilize large crowds.
The Hong Kong Police Force said in a statement on its website that a 23-year-old man had been arrested Saturday on suspicion of “accessing a computer with illegal or dishonest intentions” and illegal assembly.
A preliminary police investigation revealed the man had posted messages on online discussion boards urging others to go to Mong Kok—one of three main protest sites—to “join an illegal assembly, attack police and paralyze subway lines,” the statement said. The man, who has been released on bail, is separately accused of illegal assembly in Mong Kok, the statement said.
The police declined to give further information about the man or say whether he has retained a lawyer. Attempts by The Wall Street Journal to contact the man have been unsuccessful.
The arrest marks a relatively new tactic in Hong Kong police’s attempts to curb the demonstrations that have paralyzed key sections of the city for weeks. The protesters are demanding democratic changes in the way Hong Kong elects its chief executive. China has said such changes are impossible, and the Hong Kong government is backing Beijing.
After an initial attempt to clear demonstrators with tear gas backfired, police have largely left the protest sites alone during the past few weeks. After the numbers of protesters dwindled last week, police started moving in to clear some key streets and intersections.
In response, demonstrators have at times put out calls over social media and the Internet for reinforcements. Some of the more radical demonstrators frustrated with the progress of the main protest groups have sometimes called for more forceful tactics to seize ground—steps the main groups don’t condone. Shortly after midnight Sunday morning, a surge of demonstrators in Mong Kok pushed police out of a major intersection that had been cleared earlier.
“The world of the Internet is not a lawless virtual world,” the police statement on Saturday’s arrest said, adding that while authorities respected the public’s right to free speech and assembly, they also had to preserve public order.
Hong Kong police had used the same charges against a handful of people earlier in the month, although they were accused of different actions.
On Oct. 6, police said they arrested three men and two women, aged 13 to 39, for allegedly providing computer programs for others to download, to attack government websites. They were arrested for “accessing computers with illegal or dishonest intent.” Police seized six computers, six mobile devices and other equipment related to the case, a police statement said.
Hong Kong remains far more tolerant of dissent online compared with mainland China. Chinese authorities, ever wary of unrest, have in recent years tried to stem the swelling of protests by detaining or arresting individuals they accuse of spreading rumors on the Internet through the country’s popular microblogs.
In recent weeks, police in China have also taken away dozens of people who posted photos online of the protests in Hong Kong or expressed support for the student-led movement, Beijing activist Hu Jia told The Wall Street Journal Sunday.
Write to Gillian Wong at gillian.wong@wsj.com
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