Hong Kong anthem: Google won't alter search results amid protest song row

In July Hong Kong marked 25 years since the British handover of power to China

Google says it does not manipulate its search results amid a row over where Hong Kong's national anthem appears.

Hong Kong had demanded that the search engine bury results for Glory to Hong Kong, a popular protest song.

Instead, China's national anthem should appear as the top search result, with the territory's leader John Lee saying it was a "moral issue".

The protest song was accidentally played for Hong Kong athletes at two recent events.

"Google handles billions of search queries every day, so we build ranking systems to automatically surface relevant, high quality, and helpful information," the tech giant told AFP news agency.

"We do not manually manipulate organic web listings to determine the ranking of a specific page," it added.

Glory to Hong Kong was heard at a rugby game in South Korea last month instead of the Chinese national anthem March of the Volunteers.

The Asia Rugby Association said staff had downloaded the wrong music after selecting the top search result for the term "Hong Kong national anthem" from the internet.

The title of the protest song was also displayed on the screen while the Chinese national anthem was being played at an earlier rugby game.

Earlier this month Glory to Hong Kong was played for weightlifter Susanna Lin at an awards ceremony in Dubai.

On Monday Hong Kong's security chief Chris Tang said Google had refused the city's requests, using the company's algorithm as a justification, and described this as "unconvincing".

He accused Google of double standards, citing the firm's response following the EU's top court's ruling that the company must delete results about people if they can prove the information to be untrue.

On Wednesday China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Beijing supported the Hong Kong government's actions "upholding the dignity of the national anthem".

He said internet companies had an obligation to deliver correct information.

Police are investigating whether the anthem mix-up in South Korea violated Hong Kong's national security law. Beijing imposed the controversial law in 2020 to end dissent after democracy protests and says it applies worldwide.

• What is Hong Kong's national security law?

However the tech giant - which is banned in mainland China but is accessible in Hong Kong and has an office there - said it was in contact with Hong Kong's government to explain "how our platforms and removal policies work".

"We do not remove web results except for specific reasons outlined in our global policy documentation," the company statement said.

Both Mr Tang and Mr Lee have said the Hong Kong government will make another request to Google.

It is not the first time that Google has tangled with the Hong Kong authorities. The company suspended cooperation with Hong Kong police on data requests after the national security law came into force.

Earlier this year YouTube, which is owned by Google, terminated John Lee's channel saying this was because Mr Lee had been sanctioned by the US for curtailing civil liberties.

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