Saturday 16 November 2019

'How Fake News and Rumors Are Stoking Division in Hong Kong'

Sent in by a reader: link to this article in Bloomberg. Bloomberg is centre to centre-left so it’s interesting that most of the examples are on the protesters’ side (aka “yellow ribbons”). i.e. they are responsible for most of the rumours and fake news.
Most people now get their news from the internet, which is bad news because it means social media the likes of LIHKG, which is a cesspit of paranoia and conspiracy theories. 
Better news source is Live Stream on cable. But many won’t have
the subscription or won’t be bothered with the time it takes
And in the meantime there’s still 2047 to look forward to (or worry about).  That ought to be where the efforts are put: talking to Beijing about post-47 (As Henry Litton has argued).  But now that’s unlikely.  Alex Lo is pessimistic, as am I:
Thoughtful people worry how Hong Kong’s institutions can survive after 2047 when “one country, two systems” expires. They needn’t worry; ours will have become so weak or non-existent the mainland will simply take over without worrying about a difficult institutional merger. [Here]