The launch of Joshua Wong’s new political party Demosistō has been marred by criticism and parody, chiefly over the difficult pronunciation and questionable use of the plural form in its name. Now, the party might be facing problems of a more technical kind: cybersquatting.
Variations of the Demosistō name have been registered on various social media platforms.
On Facebook, a parody page under the name “DemosistoHongKong” poked fun at the party.
One such fan page was even verified by Facebook before the official page was.
連 Facebook 個藍 Tick 認證都「俾人搶走」埋，究竟 GIF 佢哋今次又點拆呢？#UNoBlueTick
Posted by Tango 蛋糕陳 on Monday, 11 April 2016
The Twitter handle @DemosistoHK has also been registered though appears to be benign for now.
Others are actively deriding the newly formed party with vulgar language, such as @hk_demosisto.
But perhaps the most entertaining example resides at the registered domain name demosisto.com.hk. Visitors are immediately thrust into a browser game parody of Flappy Bird called Flappy Oscar, where one must direct Demosistō vice-chairman Oscar Lai Man-lok’s head through a gauntlet of Oscar statues.
Lai was mocked during the New Territories East by-election for supposedly seeking the limelight by “photobombing” candidates.
All reporting halted as team @hongkongfp plays “Flappy Oscar” – @krislc @karenklcheung @IsaacCheungHK pic.twitter.com/8jr9V9Pa39
— Tom Grundy (@tomgrundy) April 12, 2016
Business registration
Though much of the ridicule Demosistō has been subjected to appeared harmless, other “tributes” may be more problematic. On Tuesday the name Demosistō was registered under the Business Registration Ordinance as a game developer by an unknown party, according to an article on VJMedia.
According to the certificate, the registration came into effect on April 8 and will not expire until April 7, 2017.
