Edward Leung Tin-kei, member of the localist party Hong Kong Indigenous, was banned from posting on Facebook for 24 hours on Tuesday after his video of two men allegedly following him was reported.
The video uploaded by Leung on August 7 showed him approaching a black car which he claimed followed him for a month. When Leung asked the two men inside the car where they came from, they replied “grandpa” – a slang term used for the Chinese Communist Party.
“I don’t want to know about you. Someone wants to know about you – I don’t want to know,” said one of the men in the car.
Leung was informed on Tuesday night that his original video was removed for not complying with Facebook’s community standards. Shortly after, he uploaded it again and was banned from posting for 24 hours after the new post also got reported, said Ming Pao.
A few hours later, lawmaker Charles Mok of the Information Technology functional constituency left a comment on Leung’s Facebook page, saying that he had asked Facebook about the incident. The original video of Leung allegedly being followed has since been restored.
“For every post being deleted, just post ten more posts,” said one commenter on Leung’s Facebook page. According to Hong Kong Indigenous’ Facebook page, many users re-uploaded the video on their personal accounts since Tuesday.
Leung was among the pro-independence candidates barred from running in the upcoming Legislative Council election in September. He declared that he did not support Hong Kong independence during the nomination period, but the returning officer did not accept that he had genuinely changed his stance.
Hong Kong Indigenous said it will file for judicial review and lodge an election petition over the disqualification.
Update at 7:30pm: All functions on Edward Leung’s Facebook account have now been restored.
