Social media posts (including those on Twitter) can get you arrested in Hong Kong :(

How many people, particularly "yellow" folks,

feel it's like to be in Hong Kong these days

 

This evening, news broke in Hong Kong of a 48-year-old housewife having been arrested for sedition because of posts she made on social media: specifically, Twitter.  Although there have been at least one other case of someone being arrested for their Tweets (and maybe even more than that), this is still newsworthy; not least because it has seemed that the majority of Hong Kongers arrested and jailed for "seditious" social media posts to date -- including a 24 year old man just yesterday -- have posted on the local LIHKG platform (rather than international Twitter).

 

At the point of writing, the housewife's arrest does not appear to have reported by any English language outlets as yet.  So here's presenting -- with the help of Google Translate, which looks to have worked pretty well (for a change) -- an English language account and hoping it'll be just one of many reports on this disturbing development:

The National Security Police this afternoon arrested a 48-year-old woman resident of the Western District of Hong Kong on suspicion of violating Articles 9 and 10 of the Crimes Ordinance (Chapter 200 of the Laws of Hong Kong) and "conducting an act with seditious intent".

 

According to a police report, the arrested woman is suspected of continuously posting inflammatory messages on different social media platforms, including ones arousing hatred against the Chinese and Hong Kong governments, advocating Hong Kong independence, calling for armed confrontation, and insulting National flag and national anthem. Sources say that the arrested woman is a housewife who has posted several times on her Twitter account about Hong Kong independence and her hatred of the police.

 

The arrested woman is now being detained for enquiries. In addition, the police searched the residence of the arrested woman pursuant to a court warrant and seized electronic communication tools suspected to have been used to distribute inflammatory messages.

Personal note: despite my never having advocated for Hong Kong independence, called for armed confrontation and such, I must admit to sometimes wondering whether I'll get arrested by the Hong Kong police some day for my social media (including) blog posts.  To the point where I actually have literally had nightmares about this.

 

The way things are going, I guess that, at some point, I'll feel that I should choose to be silent.  For now though, I intend to keep on speaking my mind and speaking out -- "Do not obey in advance", "Believe in truth" and all that --  all while hoping that I'm not shouting into a void.