Regina Ip Demands Google Answers

Ip asking for Google to come to Legco to answer questions

The saga over the wrong anthem played at rugby matches overseas continues to be dragged out, this time by Executive Council convenor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, who wants Google executives to answer questions in the Legislative Council.

She said she would write to Legco president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen to invite the behemoth search engine to answer lawmakers' questions, and if they refused, Ip would seek to invoke the Legislative Council (Power and Privileges) Ordinance to summon them. 

"If they ignore the summons, a warrant can be issued. It's a criminal offence and offenders can be jailed up to 12 months," she warned.

The 2019 protest song is the top search result

In other words, the Google executives are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Ip added a majority in Legco was all that was needed to call on the ordinance.

Last month Hong Kong's rugby team competed in Incheon, South Korea, where Glory to Hong Kong, a song associated with the 2019 protests, was played instead of the Chinese national anthem, March of the Volunteers.

Korean organisers apologised for the incident, claiming when they looked it up online, Glory to Hong Kong came up first. And so pro-establishment lawmakers are urging Google to tweak the algorithm so that March of the Volunteers came up first.

The lawmakers, in a bid to prove their patriotism to their Beijing masters are probably hoping to get air time grilling Google executives, but they won't get very far.

The wrong anthem was played in Incheon

As long as people keep searching for "Hong Kong anthem", then the protest song will come up first -- this is how Google works because this is what users are searching for. No amount of buying advertising will change the algorithm, as I found out in a podcast called Freakonomics in an episode called "Is Google Getting Worse?"

Freakonomics host Stephen Dubner interviews Liz Reid, vice president of Search at Google.

At one point she explains the correlation between search results and advertising:

"Behind the scenes in Search, we take great pride in not only trying to provide high-quality results, but ensuring that they are not influenced by ads. So we have a very strong culture that says whether or not you're an advertiser, does not allow you to change the results we show. You cannot pay us to change how you show. Those results are very pure, and we go to great lengths to ensure that this is the case. And so the quality of the search we provide is run separately from the ads to do that."

Reid says ads and search results are separate

So one can imagine if and when these Google executives go to Legco, lawmakers are going to go red in the face with frustration that the search engine giant will refuse to budge. 

But watching this process might be entertaining so don't miss it! 

The Blundering Continues

The screen-capped caption blunder on the TV screen...

You can't make this up.

Only days after the diplomatic kerfuffle in Incheon, South Korea when the 2019 protest song, Glory to Hong Kong was played instead of the Chinese anthem, March of the Volunteers, another mistake happened.

At the Rugby World Cup event in Dubai, March of the Volunteers was played, but the caption on the screen was "Glory to Hong Kong", and below that "National anthem of Hong Kong".

Secretary for Sports, Culture and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yun-hung was not amused.

"I can hardly believe that [mistakes] related to our national anthem were made at rugby matches consecutively within such a short period of time. It is hard to accept," he said, adding the authorities would handle the incident seriously.

The Hong Kong Rugby Union had no idea what was displayed on the screen, nor were they informed the name of the anthem would be displayed on television.

The union said World Rugby had apologised for the mix-up and said the mistake was made by a "graphics operator"...

Meanwhile some people may have fallen in love with rugby now...

Oops Wrong National Anthem

Players' reactions when Glory to Hong Kong was played

Outraged government officials and claims of a criminal act committed have caused a diplomatic incident at the Asian Rugby Sevens Series in Incheon, South Korea.

Before the match between Hong Kong and host South Korea, the wrong anthem for the former was played. Instead of the March of the Volunteers, China's national anthem, the protest song of 2019 called Glory to Hong Kong was played.

Hong Kong complained to Asia Rugby Union

On the pitch the players don't seem puzzled or freaked out that a massive faux-pas is happening -- they seem more focused on their upcoming game, which they went on to win.

But back in Hong Kong there were either (private) shrieks of delight of hearing the banned song again, or shrieks of anger condemning the mistake.

A spokesman said the Hong Kong government "strongly deplores and opposes the playing of a song closely associated with violent protests and the 'independence' movement in 2019".

The Hong Kong team had submitted the correct recording of the national anthem to the tournament organiser, but the wrong song was played due to "human error of a junior staffer of the local organiser".

Glory to Hong Kong was protest anthem in 2019

Since then the Hong Kong government wrote to the Rugby Union, demanding they "deal with this matter seriously, launch a full and in-depth investigation and submit a detailed report."

After the song was played, the Hong Kong team told the organisers the song was wrong and then played the March of the Volunteers during the prize presentation ceremony when the Hong Kong team won the final.

Asia Rugby has since apologised for the incident.

Meanwhile some pro-Beijing politicians went ballistic when they heard about the incident.

Ronny Tong Ka-wah, a member of the Executive Council, urged the government to investigate whether anyone in the city was an accomplice to helping or planning the playing of the song in Incheon.

Tong believes there could be criminal intent

"This was surely not a careless mistake. It must be a criminal act with mens rea [criminal intent], and people involved could have constituted sedition under the Crimes Ordinance, as well as secession or collusion with foreign forces under the national security law," Tong wrote on his Facebook.

Lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu who can be hardline and emotional, suggested dissolving the Hong Kong rugby team and accused the players of "not responding at all" when the song was played.

"They let the country face humiliation. They have completely failed and lost our confidence, and the only solution to this is to disband the team," he said.