Hong Kong Protesters in Taiwan Fear Being Watched on Facebook and Telegram

Last Sunday, around 10,000 people in Taipei joined a rally to support the people of Hong Kong in protesting their city’s controversial extradition bill. Despite the intense heat, most people had adhered to the dress code of wearing a black top. Adding to their discomfort, many sported face masks to hide their identity—a precaution which is rarely taken in Taiwan.

While the risks for Hongkongers are apparent, this also reflected a new attitude among student activists in Taiwan who are starting to wise up to possible repercussions from across the strait for speaking out against the Chinese government.

Many had brought along umbrellas—not to provide shade, but as a nod to Hong Kong’s 2014 Umbrella Movement. I discovered a student, Chen Ching-hsin (陳敬昕), under one umbrella, working on his laptop creating a QR code to publicize a multilingual video in which students from 24 colleges in Taiwan had provided footage showing solidarity with the people of Hong Kong. A second version, due to be released on Monday, adds a further 15 schools.

“We support Hong Kong and also want to strongly express our insistence on the values of liberty and judicial independence to the world,” explained Chen, an undergraduate at Hsinchu’s National Tsing Hua University.

However, by Chen’s calculation, around 5% to 10% of the 5,000 or so students who took part chose to remain anonymous, either by donning masks or blurring out their faces.

Chiang Ping-han (蔣秉翰), president of the university’s student association, indicated that they had issued new guidelines for students speaking out against the extradition bill.

“Given the fact that some students joining the event this time are from Hong Kong and Macau, and that many Taiwanese students are going to be exchange students or attend various activities in mainland China this summer, we reminded them to wear masks if necessary, to show support without revealing their identities,” Chiang said in an email.

“In Taiwan, whether to cover your faces is barely a concern,” Chiang added. “I think this was perhaps the first time ever for the student association to include and emphasize this kind of reminder.”

Furthermore, possible repercussions for stating opinions or sharing related content on social media—especially in instances of calls to action—are weighing heavily on many minds. Should the bill pass, even those transiting through Hong Kong would face potential extradition to China, where they would face a notoriously unfree and unjust judicial process in which over 99.9% of trials end in guilty verdicts.

This has thrust a damper upon the free spread of opinions and news online among those in Taiwan who fear the watchful eye of Hong Kong and Chinese authorities.

According to the recently published Reuters 2019 Digital Report, reliance on social media and messaging apps to get news is on the rise. In Hong Kong, 57% of respondents said they get their news from social media and messaging, with Facebook and WhatsApp holding the top spots.

Anthony, like many Hongkongers I photographed at the rally, carefully raised his sign to cover his face for the photo.

“I used to write something on my Facebook freely before,” said Anthony, who has studied in Taiwan for the past three years. “But now, I will think deliberately before I write… I am really afraid [about] the censorship from China.”

An impromptu art piece set up by an attendee at the rally in Taipei on Sunday, June 16.

Anna, a dual Hong Kong-Taiwan citizen who grew up in Hong Kong and currently resides in Taiwan, said she had planned to return to Hong Kong to join Sunday’s march but canceled her flight due to her parents’ fears over her personal safety.

“They’re saying ‘we’re not [going to arrest] you for any political related offenses,’ but they’ve never really arrested people for political related offenses—it’s always another reason,” said Anna, 28. (Anna and Anthony asked to be identified by pen names for this story.)

Anna noticed an immediate change after the reported police arrest of an administrator of a 30,000-member Telegram chat group in Hong Kong.

“In a lot of Telegram groups and WhatsApp groups everyone left because they were like, ‘Get out of the groups. They are looking for our phones and our IP addresses!’” she said. “That made me quite scared of what I was posting on Instagram, because that’s even more public.”

After the rally, Anna said reactions to the protests would weigh heavily on her social media habits.

“If this bill isn’t withdrawn, I will probably continue to post what I’m posting now,” she said. “But in the back of my mind, I would be terrified and would have serious second thoughts about going to Hong Kong or the mainland if I get increasingly vocal about my stance against the suppression of freedom of speech.”

Some protesters made their own signs to bring along to the rally. 2,000 official “Taiwan with Hong Kong” signs printed out by the organizers were all handed out within an hour of the start of the rally.

Anna’s fears were echoed by Esther Lau, the spokesperson and general secretary for a group of Hong Kong students in Taiwan that organized last week’s rally.

“At first, I was scared about joining such a petition and rally openly without any protection,” Lau, 23, said in an email, citing fears during the Umbrella Movement that vocal protestors could face arrest in Hong Kong.

“This time, if people still do not stand out for their opinion, the government will, again like in 2014, just ignore the vast opinion [of those] who didn’t speak out publicly,” she said.

Esther was alarmed by a June 20 report in Hong Kong’s Apple Daily that returning students were being targeted for special questioning at Hong Kong’s airport. She said Hongkongers at the Taipei rally “may find difficulties in entering Hong Kong and [be checked] frequently by the police,” expressing concern that students could potentially face arrest.

Esther said she now uses social media less frequently than she did before the protests. Like many Hongkongers, her group favors Telegram or Instagram to get messages out to their peers. But Facebook is still an important part of their arsenal, offering a way to reach older generations who students fear may otherwise rely heavily on pro-government TV news channels.

As Hong Kong residents in Taiwan face the growing possibility of being scrutinized by authorities upon their return home—or, should the extradition bill being re-tabled, that of being deported to China—their Taiwanese counterparts are determined to continue to speak out for them as a matter of principle.

Ye Ting-yu (葉庭佑), the National Taiwan University coordinator for the college student video, said Taiwan’s open social media environment had allowed him to rapidly raise awareness among friends and peers. “I think that they realize the seriousness of the Hong Kong extradition bill,” he said.

Like other student coordinators, Ye, 18, recommended that participants wear a mask in the video should they want to protect their identities from recognition by Chinese authorities, which could possibly bar them from entering China in the future.

At Tsing Hua, Chiang has also contacted university administrators to request assistance for the school’s Hong Kong students, including offering legal and psychological counselling and asking that the university monitor any issues students may face after returning home.

Two Taiwanese students, Winnie and May: “Although there are many people here supporting Hong Kong and we know that Taiwan is facing the threat from China, but there’s also lots of Taiwanese people who do not recognize the situation.”

Last week’s rally spawned a common theme: Taiwan’s democracy was hard-earned and must also be defended.

Chiang said student interest in Hong Kong’s current protests are reminiscent of the energy behind Taiwan’s 2014 Sunflower Student Movement.

“This event has sparked more attention than any social issue, including same-sex marriage, has in Taiwan in the past few years,” said Chiang, who attributes this to an “emotional connection” born of the influence of Hong Kong films and music in Taiwan, as well as growing concerns about China’s “volatile government.”

This spirit has left Taiwanese students undeterred, despite the possible ramifications that volatile government could bestow upon them in the future.

As Chen stated at the rally on Sunday: “I know it’s dangerous now to use this kind of social media to say what I want to say to the world. But I think this time, I need to walk out and tell the whole world what we think and what we insist on.”

“This is democracy and liberty and judicial independence. These are our values, so we need to tell everyone in the world.”

(Feature photo by Cat Thomas)