China's national flag (five-star red flag) and the flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are seen in south China's Hong Kong, Oct 1, 2021. Photo:Xinhua

 Internet enterprises have the responsibility to release correct information to the public instead of sitting aside to let the spread of misinformation mislead people, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday, expressing support for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government’s move to defend the national anthem against Google.

In November, the HKSAR government made solemn representations to the technology giant, asking it to place China's correct national anthem "March of the Volunteers" as the top search term after inputting the keywords "Hong Kong" and "national anthem," rather than the song linked to the social turmoil in Hong Kong in 2019.

However, Google denied the HKSAR government’s request and reportedly said it could not do anything as the search result is based on an algorithm without any human input. 

On Tuesday, Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu told reporters that the national anthem in any country shows its legal status and also represents the country and people’s dignity and feelings. "A responsible company must deal with the incident seriously."

Lee said the SAR government will continue to communicate with Google on this issue and request different departments to follow up. 

On Tuesday, Hong Kong's security chief Chris Tang Ping-keung also criticized Google for refusing to place China's correct national anthem at the top of its search results, saying Google's refusal claim was unbelievable and represented a clear double standard.

Tang said Hong Kong police were also investigating an incident, which involved a song associated with the social turmoil in Hong Kong in 2019 being played as Hong Kong's national anthem at the men's final between Hong Kong and South Korea in the second leg of the Asian Rugby Seven Series on November 13.

According to the organizers of the Rugby Sevens tournament in South Korea, they had asked each team to submit recordings of their national anthem beforehand. As they did not find the file submitted by the Hong Kong team, the staff googled it and downloaded the one at the top of search results.

Global Times