This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
“Glory to Hong Kong,” the anthem of the 2019 Hong Kong protests, has been taken down by major streaming platforms Apple Music and Spotify around the world, despite only being banned in Hong Kong, its creators have said.
“Distribution companies in the U.K., United States and Canada are kneeling down [to China],” DGX Music, the creative team behind “Glory to Hong Kong.” wrote on their Instagram account on Tuesday. “It has completely disappeared from all streaming platforms.”
“We couldn’t find the original version of ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ released by DGX Music on Apple Music or Spotify in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United Kingdom or Canada,” the songwriters said.
“Glory to Hong Kong,” which sparked a police investigation after organizers played it in error at recent overseas sports events, was regularly sung by crowds of unarmed protesters during the 2019 protests, which ranged from peaceful mass demonstrations for full democracy to intermittent, pitched battles between protesters and armed riot police.
Public live performances of the song are already banned in Hong Kong, as its lyrics are deemed illegal under stringent national security legislation.
But the Court of Appeal on May 8 granted the government a temporary injunction to address its continued availability online, calling it a “weapon” that could be used to bring down the government, and an “rfainsult” to China’s national anthem.
‘Separatist intent’?
The song calls for freedom and democracy rather than independence, but was nonetheless deemed in breach of the law due to its “separatist” intent, officials and police officers said at the start of an ongoing citywide crackdown on public dissent and peaceful political activism.
A survey of Spotify and Apple Music in Taiwan, the U.K. and Canada yielded no results for the original version of the song during a search by RFA Cantonese on Wednesday. However, some remixes and cover versions were still available.
Multiple versions of the song were still visible following a search of YouTube in several locations.
The song’s disappearance comes after YouTube blocked access to dozens of videos containing the song to viewers in the city in May, following a court injunction that said it could be used as a “weapon” to bring down the government.
The company, which is owned by Google’s parent Alphabet, said 32 videos featuring the banned song had been geoblocked and are now unavailable in the city.
DGX Music reported in June that a newly released a capella version of the song was suddenly deleted by U.S. publisher Distrokid, with no reason given, while Scotland’s Emubands made it clear that it had removed the song due to the injunction.
Threat to freedom of speech
But the songwriters said the injunction only applies to Hong Kong, and should have no overseas effect at all.
“Some Western media organizations have complied with the Hong Kong government’s political injunction unnecessarily, resulting in the violation of basic human rights,” DGX Music wrote.
“This has a fundamental impact on Western democratic societies, and poses a serious threat to the principles of freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of artistic expression,” they said.
Hong Kong lawyer-turned-musician Adrian Chow said even big multinational platforms will adopt unnecessarily conservative attitudes “in order not to alarm senior management or the legal department.”
“They just give in, saying it’s just one song, not Taylor Swift’s entire back catalog,” Chow said. “Maybe when their legal departments found out how little income it makes, they felt it wasn’t worth the risk … as the legal fees [in case of a lawsuit] would far exceed any income from the song.”
He said independent creators have very little bargaining power with the online streaming platforms, and there is scant opportunity for negotiation.
The Hong Kong authorities can also step up pressure on overseas corporations through any business operations they have in the city, he said.
The song’s labeling as “Hong Kong’s national anthem” on YouTube has been “highly embarrassing and hurtful to many people of Hong Kong, not to mention its serious damage to national interests,” the Court of Appeal judges said when they granted the injunction on May 8.
Hong Kong passed a law in 2020 making it illegal to insult China’s national anthem on pain of up to three years’ imprisonment, following a series of incidents in which Hong Kong soccer fans booed their own anthem in the stadium.
