This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
Despite just being prohibited in Hong Kong, its developers have claimed that” Glory to Hong Kong,” the anthem of the 2019 Hong Kong demonstrations, has been taken down by main streaming services Apple Music and Spotify around the world.
” 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 accounts on Tuesday. ” It has completely disappeared from all streaming platforms” . ,
” We could n’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 latest overseas sporting events, was often sung by , masses of unarmed protesters , during the 2019 demonstrations, which ranged from peaceful mass rallies for full democracy to intermittent, pitched battles between protesters and armed rebellion officers.
People live performances of the track are  , currently banned , in Hong Kong, as its phrases are deemed illegal under strict federal safety regulations.
But the Court of Appeal on May 8 granted the state a temporary injunction to address its ongoing presence online, calling it a “weapon” that could be used to take down the government, and an “rfainsult” to China’s national anthem.
‘ Separatist objective’?
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.
RFA Cantonese searched for the song’s unique version on Wednesday, but a study of Spotify and Apple Music in Taiwan, the U.K., and Canada revealed no effects. However, some parodies and support versions were also available.
Following a research on YouTube in a number of places, the song’s several versions still existed.
Following a judge order that said the song could be used as a “weapon” to dethrone the authorities, YouTube in May blocked access to lots of video containing the track for city residents.
The business, which is owned by Google’s family Alphabet, said 32 movies featuring the banned music had been geoblocked and are now accessible in the area.
A recent a cappella version of the song was abruptly deleted by U.S. publication Distrokid, according to DGX Music, without giving a reason, while Scotland’s Emubands made it abundantly clear that it had removed the music as a result of the order.  ,
Threat to freedom of conversation
However, the artists claimed that the order should only be applied to Hong Kong and not be applicable to any other countries.
” Some American media companies have complied with the Hong Kong government’s social order excessively, resulting in the infraction of basic human rights”, DGX Audio wrote.
They said that” this has a fundamental impact on Western political societies, and seriously violates the fundamental rights of freedom of expression, press, and musical expression.”
Adrian Chow, a Hong Kong lawyer-turned-musician, predicted that” to prevent alarming senior management or the legal department, even large multinational programs will follow excessively traditional behaviour.”
” They just give in, saying it’s just one song, not Taylor Swift’s entire back catalog”, Chow said. ” Maybe when their legal departments discovered how little money it makes, they felt the risk was n’t worth it because the legal costs [in the case of a lawsuit ] would far exceed any money made from the song,” they said.
He claimed that there are few opportunities for negotiation between independent creators and online streaming platforms.
He added that any business operations conducted in Hong Kong by local authorities can also put pressure on foreign companies there.
The Court of Appeal judges said when they granted the injunction on May 8 that the song’s label as” Hong Kong’s national anthem” on YouTube had been “highly embarrassing and hurtful to many people of Hong Kong, not to mention its serious harm to national interests,” the Court of Appeal judges said when they granted the injunction.
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.
