The Chief Executive’s Office has asked for police assistance after Leung Chun-ying’s official Facebook account was accessed by suspected hackers who then added “unwanted” new friends such as a Japanese porn star.
Usually hidden to other users, Leung’s friend list was made public recently and captured by netizens. The chief executive’s account had disappeared several times—supposedly due to user reports of inappropriate content—before reemerging under the username “phuongnam.inf0“.
In a report on Wednesday by Next Magazine and a follow up story by Apple Daily, it was found that Leung’s Facebook friends included people from Indonesia, Vietnam, several young ladies claiming to be from Taiwan, and Japanese porn star Yukino Shinohara.
The Chief Executive’s Office, which runs Leung’s account, issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon that said his account was suspected to have been hacked on Christmas Eve afternoon.
“Some information and settings were modified by others, some posts were deleted by others, some ‘new friends’ were added by others, and the Chief Executive’s Facebook profile picture was modified by others,” the statement read.
The statement added that the Chief Executive’s Office had reported the case to the police on December 24.
Leung posted the statement on his account, where it received more than 400 likes and 250 shares in less than an hour.
At a Legislative Council session in November, lawmaker Lam Tai-fai asked why Leung was not Facebook friends with members of the Executive Council, Legislative Council, District Councils, and Hong Kong deputies to the National People’s Congress.
Consequently, Lam questioned the effectiveness of the effort in improving the relationship between the executive and the legislature.
In response, Secretary for Home Affairs Lau Kong-wah said that “the government is still in its early stage of discovering and using new media. We will keep learning when using it and will gather experience endlessly with the Chief Executive’s Facebook to continue establishing new platforms to communicate with the people.”
At the same session, lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan joked that Leung should learn from his daughter Leung Chai-yan if he wanted more friends on Facebook.
