Hong Kong app promoting pro-democracy businesses vanishes after arrests linked to self-exiled activists
Hong Kong Free Press
An app that promoted businesses sympathetic to Hong Kong’s 2019 protests appeared to have vanished from online platforms and app stores in the city, after local media reported that five people arrested by national security police on Wednesday and Thursday were linked to its operations.
Created in 2020, the 懲罰Mee app mapped out the locations of “yellow businesses” – restaurants, shops and service providers that supported democracy in Hong Kong. It also provided discounts and information about the stores.
A Google search of “懲罰Mee” on an iOS device on Friday morning showed a link to the app listed as the top result, but when redirected to Apple’s Hong Kong App Store, a message appeared saying: “App Not Available. This app is currently not available in your country or region.”
Android’s Google Play app store said the app could not be found.
For users who already had the app installed, a pop-up message appeared after several seconds of loading, saying: “Server busy, try again.”
The shopping app’s page had also vanished from Facebook on Friday morning, with the page link showing a message saying: “This Page Isn’t Available. The link may be broken, or the page may have been removed. Check to see if the link you’re trying to open is correct.”
On Instagram – which is owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta – 懲罰Mee’s profile could not be found when searching via the app. Following link to its Instagram account from Google yielded an account page with no posts.
HKFP has reached out to Apple, Google and Meta for comment.
As of Friday morning, 懲罰Mee’s blog, which features promotions of “yellow” shops as well as political news articles, was still online. Its latest entry posted on Monday was an article by local media outlet ReNews on the issuance of extraterritorial arrest warrants by the police National Security Department for eight self-exiled activists in the US, UK, and Australia.
They were former lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, lawyer Kevin Yam, unionist Mung Siu-tat, lobbyists Anna Kwok and Finn Lau, campaigner Elmer Yuen and Nathan Law, one of the founding members of defunct pro-democracy party Demosisto.
Citing sources, local media reported that five men arrested by national security police on Wednesday and Thursday were linked to both Demosisto and the 懲罰Mee app. They were apprehended in connection with an alleged conspiracy to collude with foreign forces by providing financial support to self-exiled activists.
According to local media reports, the man arrested on Thursday was Calvin Chu, a former member of Demosisto’s standing committee. He has been detained pending further investigation.
Police said the apprehended individual was linked to four men arrested on Wednesday who allegedly received funds from operating companies, social media platforms and mobile applications to support people who had left Hong Kong and who, police alleged, continued to engage in activities which endangered national security.
An office in Kwai Chung was raided on Wednesday evening, with officers seizing yellow banners, cardboards and flags with 懲罰Mee promotions, local media reported.
Photos published by Ming Pao showed police escorting Ivan Lam, a former Demosisto chairperson, out of an industrial building after searching it on Wednesday evening.
Western countries have decried the issuance of national security arrest warrants, with the US saying the extraterritorial application of the national security law set a “dangerous precedent” for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The Hong Kong government hit back at criticism on Thursday and said the accusations were “irresponsible and unsubstantiated.”
Protests erupted in June 2019 over a since-axed extradition bill. They escalated into sometimes violent displays of dissent against police behaviour, amid calls for democracy and anger over Beijing’s encroachment. Demonstrators demanded an independent probe into police conduct, amnesty for those arrested and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
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