YouTube removes channel promoting sole candidate for Hong Kong’s future leader

YouTube has removed John Lee’s channel, the only candidate for Chief Executive of Hong Kong

On Wednesday 20, April, YouTube, the giant video sharing platform, shut down the channel of John Lee,Hong Kong’s former Security Chief and sole candidate for the semi-autonomous Chinese city’s Chief Executive, in compliance with US sanctions against him, as reported by France24.

John Lee is currently amongst the group of top Hong Kong and Beijing officials sanctioned by the US in 2020, that also includes current leader Carrie Lam. They were sanctioned for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and for restricting its freedoms after the imposition of a strict national security law by Beijing.

John Lee had created a YouTube channel, as well as a Facebook page, as part of his campaign’s promotion despite being the sole candidate in the election for Chief Executive that will take place on 8, May, with an Election Committee of around 1,500 people.

Google, YouTube’s parent company, said in a statement that it “complies with applicable US sanctions laws and enforces related policies under its Terms of Service. After review and consistent with these policies, we terminated the Johnlee2022 YouTube channel.”

Tam Yiu-chung, his campaign manager, stated that the move was “completely unjustified”. “They cannot stop us from disseminating information about our campaign and our candidate to the public,” he said. A spokesperson for Facebook stated that  Mr Lee will be permitted to “maintain a demonetised presence on Facebook and Instagram, and we have taken steps to prevent the use of payments services”.

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