Legal Affairs EP11 | Barrister: YouTube's removal of John Lee's channel infringes freedom of information

The first Chief Executive election of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after the improvement of the electoral system was held successfully on May 8, with John Lee Ka-chiu winning the election.

However, things did not always work in Lee's favor as he went all out for campaign. Around two weeks ahead of the election, Lee's YouTube channel was unreasonably shut down, arousing anger among Lee's supporters. In this episode of Legal Affairs, Lawrence Ma, Chairman of the Hong Kong Foundation for Legal Exchange, analyzed the reasons behind this move.

According to Ma, YouTube terminated Lee's account because he was blacklisted by the U.S. as a "Specially Designated National" (SDN). Looking at news reports from 16 years ago, it's easy to see that YouTube was acquired by Google back in 2006, so if Google decided to comply with the U.S. sanctions, YouTube would have to follow suit, he said. But why would Google do so?

Ma showed information from years ago, which indicated that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Agency (NSA) in the U.S. recruited two computer geniuses, Sergey Brin and Larry Page at Stanford University in 1995. The duo was then funded by the institutions to create Google. This means that Google was actually set up by a U.S. espionage agency as a national security surveillance system to monitor Google users in the United States and around the world.

As Lee said, the closure of the YouTube account did not substantially affect the election campaign. Nonetheless, the ban prevents HK residents overseas from accessing information through YouTube, as Ma cautioned. HK's national security law has played a powerful role in thwarting America's attempts to meddle in HK affairs. Thus, in another effort to undermine HK's influence as a cosmopolitan city, the U.S. has turned to underhanded tactics to deny the outside world access to more information about HK. Why is the U.S. so keen on interfering in HK affairs? Watch the video now to find out.

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