Why Going Viral Was a Source of Fear for One Hong Kong Citizen Journalist · Global Voices
Screen capture of <PERSON> article on inmediahk.net, which she says makes her feel panicked.
Since the beginning of the protests demanding an open nomination system of candidates for Hong Kong's top leaders, a large number of anti-government protesters and netizens have been prosecuted. The Chinese government has blocked hundreds of them from entering China for fear that they would bring the protests to mainland. “White terror” is sweeping the city, so much so that critical voices are worried that they will be prosecuted like others under the computer crimes law or banned from going to mainland China.
<PERSON>, a newly registered writer at citizen media platform inmediahk.net, recounts her panic at seeing her article go viral on social media in a follow-up post for inmediahk.net. The Chinese-language post was published on November 24, 2014, and translated into English by <PERSON>.
This was how it started. I assumed that when you post an article on inmediahk.net, you must use your real name because when I read the articles written by <PERSON>, <PERSON> and <PERSON>, their names always appeared in full, and other articles published also had names of organizations and groups. That was why when I registered on the platform I used my real name, which is a very ordinary and old fashioned Chinese name.
I shared the link of my article on Facebook because I wanted to share with my friends the progress, however small, I had made in my dream of writing. My friends were all very kind. They expressed their support and told me to keep it up. Once, inmediahk.net quoted a line I wrote about myself when they distributed my article on Facebook. People forwarded the articles with the quote and their own comments. The article then went viral and I started receiving comments through WhatsApp.
The first thing people talked about when I met them was that quote of mine introducing myself: “I came to Hong Kong when I was 8 and I am now 23.” Up until this point, I was still rather elated because as a writer, you are glad that people are actually reading your work. Then a friend commented, “You are courageous. 341
You disclosed your name in full and even circulated it on Facebook. Don’t forget, don't try going to the mainland in the near future. XD” The smile on my face stiffened immediately. A second later, I smiled and said nonchalantly, “I’ve only written an article. It’s no big deal.”
But then countless headlines crossed my mind: recently, a low-profile volunteer for student activist group Scholarism and a flight attendant who were among the arrested on July 2 at a sit-in protest were not allowed to enter the mainland; the cabinet running for CityU Student Union’s election was threatened [for their critical political stance]; a number of people had been arrested for dishonest use of computers… Okay, I know you think I’m exaggerating but from that moment on, my fleeting happiness was overshadowed by a sense of uneasiness. I woke up all of a sudden and wondered whether this was what people called “white terror.”
“White terror” is frightening not because what you fear has come true. Its terror lies in its power to instill fear and to intimidate you, and then… and then you stop right in your tracks. You start to self-censor and hold back and end up not doing anything anymore. To tell the truth, I actually looked at inmediahk.net’s webpage immediately and, lo and behold, many people posted their articles without giving their real name! There was no rule that you must publish your FULL NAME! In that instance, I cowardly wanted to change my name but found that I didn’t have the user permissions to amend the information!
Now the article is still on inmediahk.net and nothing has changed. I did not listen to pro-Beijing civic group leader <PERSON>’s advice to try crossing the border and see if I were able to enter. I was actually thinking, should I continue to write or not? When you read this, you may think, “Is she stupid? It’s such a minor thing and she worries so much. Who would know about her, anyway…” or “Why are you such a coward?!” I remember someone defending themselves after breaking into the Hong Kong Legislative Council building, saying, we are not student leader <PERSON>, nor are we <PERSON> or <PERSON> or the three spokesmen of the Occupy Central protests. No one would pay attention if we were arrested. 341