RTHK‘s English Twitter page has wiped its account clean and disabled comments on its posts, the latest development in Hong Kong’s increasingly squeezed media landscape.
The account announced Wednesday that it is disallowing replies to its tweets due to “resource constraints.” (Twitter users can, however, still comment on posts by retweeting them.)
RTHK English News is disabling comments for all future tweets as resource constraints prevent us from properly engaging with our subscribers or refute in a timely manner any misinformation that might be contained within comments.
— RTHK English News (@rthk_enews) August 4, 2021
The page’s previous tweets have also been deleted.
In responses to media outlets, RTHK said that the company’s social media policy is an “internal matter” and that it has nothing to add.
The broadcaster has come under increasing scrutiny over the past year, accused of expressing anti-government views. Episodes of various shows, including the award-winning documentary series Hong Kong Connection, have been censored before they were broadcast or barred from airing altogether.
RTHK‘s Twitter account has been a source of dry humor on English-language social media in Hong Kong, regularly inserting subtle jibes and even sarcasm in its tweets.
In February, the page removed a tweet referring to the government’s new waste reduction proposal as its “latest rubbish plan.” The tongue-in-cheek comment went viral on Twitter before being taken down “for clarity purposes.”
In another old tweet sharing an article quoting Executive Council member and government advisor Ronny Tong, RTHK referred to Chief Executive Carrie Lam as merely “the woman he advises.”
The Twitter page was noticeably quieter on Thursday. As of 3 pm, it had only tweeted once, about Hong Kong’s Olympics bronze medal win in the women’s table tennis team event.
