One of Hong Kong’s largest pro-Beijing Facebook groups has disappeared, with its founder saying that Meta removed it for apparently violating community rules.
“I received a notification my group was disabled, and I was completely shocked, as this is the second time,” Save HK founder Adrian Ho told HKFP. He said Meta removed it at around 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning.
“Since the last time it was disabled, about two years [ago], we have been constantly moderating content to not violate community standards,” he said.
The group called itself a “camp group for those who love the country and love Hong Kong, to save Hong Kong using positive energy.” It boasted, at one point, close to 200,000 members. Users of SaveHK actively discussed current events and share news, memes, photos, and videos, on topics ranging from the protests of 2019, Covid-19 and Chinese and international politics.
Ho said that Facebook told him they are looking into the matter, though he has no idea what prompted the ban.
“[W]e have been communicating with Facebook every now and then… this result certainly was very, very shocking to me and I have no idea why it happened,” adding that he started a new group immediately.
HKFP has reached out to Meta, Facebook’s owners, for comment.
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