Well known pro-Beijing campaigner Robert Chow has attracted attention from his critics after an open letter, laden with poor English usage, was sent to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Chow has been a prominent figure in the fight against the Umbrella Movement and staged multiple stunts and petitions during the height of the pro-democracy protests last year. He is also a veteran journalist, having been the editor-in-chief of English language newspaper the Standard in the 1980s.
The campaigner wrote the 840-word rant – entitled “An open Email to Mark Zuckerberg” – to express his concern over what he regards as censorship of his online media outlet, HKGPao. He said a series of the publication’s posts were removed from Facebook recently.
The letter started with a long introduction:
You don’t know me. My name is Robert Yung CHOW, a very small Facebook user from Hong Kong, and I would like to share with you our Facebook experience. We opened a Media/News/Publishing fan page called HKG Pao this month, and immediately strange things began to happen.
Chow then moved on complain about his posts being deleted, citing four examples:
The fourth post deleted was a published newspaper article and we poked fun at a student leader who became the nominal head of 90,000 college students in Hong Kong by getting just 37 votes. What democracy, we asked.
Chow demanded a direct response from Zuckerberg, despite admitting his page is “insignificant”.
He called the removal of his four posts “something of a record”, and questioned whether Facebook or its employees are “taking a political stance” or “trying to satisfy a private political agenda”.
I cannot for the life of me believe the former is true. As for the latter, I can offer no evidence except to say: heaven forbid.
I suppose someone at Facebook would look at the evidence before applying the capital punishment, right? Well, did someone look?
Now one would think we must have done some pretty offensive stuff, like insults to religion, pornography or worst.
Yet the pro-Beijing poster boy wants to move things forward:
Dear Mark, this is no request to go back to change the past. I am just humbly requesting you and Facebook to do what you think is the right thing going forward (that’s quoting you). I am not demanding anything, apology or whatever.
The letter ended with Chow praising Facebook as “a great product and we intend to communicate through you a lot. I just hope we won’t be shut down by someone in Facebook next, and wondering why.
The entire offering, in all its glory, can be found here.
Civic Party lawmaker Claudia Mo told the SCMP that Chow would only receive a C grade for his efforts in the journalism masters course she teaches, and that, she said, is being generous. She also criticised him for failing to provide the exact date and details of the deleted posts.
Chow responded to the haters by saying the letter is not meant to be a piece of homework. “Writing is about communication”, he added.
Robert Chow is a controversial and outspoken cheerleader for the government’s political reform proposal. His pro-Beijing lobby group, Alliance for Peace and Democracy, claims to have received more than 360,000 signatures last weekend in favour of the government’s electoral reform plan, although some questioned the petition’s accuracy as those who signed did not have to provide proof of identity.
Chow, who was a British citizen at the time, staged a rally in August 2014 opposing the Occupy Movement and supporting Beijing’s rule in Hong Kong. However, several media outlets revealed that food and material rewards were provided to some participants, while others were even paid.
Chow was also accused of breaching privacy laws last year when he established a hotline for teachers, parents and students to report anyone inciting pro-democracy strikes at schools.
