Glory to Hong Kong starts to disappear from online platforms

The territory’s government this month filed a lawsuit to ban the song, arguing that it violates national security law.

Glory to Hong Kong, the unofficial anthem of the city’s 2019 pro-democracy protests, has disappeared from Spotify as the government of the Chinese territory tries to remove the song from the internet.

Last week, Hong Kong’s justice minister filed a court order against performing, broadcasting or sharing the song in any format, arguing that it violates the city’s broadly stated national security law.

The song’s lyrics call for a struggle for “freedom” to “liberate our Hong Kong”, a struggle that has been called the “revolution of our times”, although the lyrics make no explicit reference to the local government or Beijing.

The song was played during the 2019 protests, which rocked the city for months as they evolved from a one-song protest to a much larger anti-government movement before COVID-19 put an end to the movement.

It has also been inadvertently played at a number of major sporting events, angering authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing.

Since the court order was filed on June 5, multiple versions of Glory to Hong Kong, including those in the original Cantonese, have stopped working on streaming services such as Apple Music, and on Facebook and Instagram reels.

Spotify said on Thursday that the song had been removed by its distributor.

A Mandarin version by Taiwanese rock band The Chairman is still available on iTunes in Taiwan and local streaming service KKBox, but most versions have also been removed on the two platforms.

Only YouTube seems to have the original, instrumental, and English versions, though it’s unclear how long they’ll stay on the platform.

Glory to Hong Kong was banned in Hong Kong schools in 2020, but the song has remained a sore spot since the end of the democracy protests.

The government was outraged when the song was mistakenly used as the city’s anthem instead of the Chinese March of the Volunteers during South Korea’s 2022 Asia Rugby Sevens and several other sporting events in Dubai and Croatia over the past two years.

Security Secretary Chris Tang vowed to do something about the song’s high Google search results in 2022, which is indexed higher than March of the Volunteers alongside God Save the King, Hong Kong’s former colonial anthem.

At the time, Tang said the search results “hurt the feelings of the Hong Kong people,” according to state broadcaster RTHK, and promised to solve the problem with Google.

A search for Glory to Hong Kong continues to show the lyrics, links to KKBox, a Wikipedia entry for the song, and some video links.

A search for “Hong Kong anthem” shows the top entry as a Wikipedia entry on March of the Volunteers, followed by Glory to Hong Kong stories.