Beijing has taken Hong Kong back in hand, muzzling any dissent after huge and often violent protests rocked the financial hub in 2019. Two men, including a teenager, have been charged with posting “seditious messages” on social media, incitement to violence, under a colonial-era law invoked by the prosecution.

The two men, aged 18 and 29, were arrested on Tuesday for posting content that “incites feelings of malevolence and enmity between different classes (…) and the use of violence”, a said the police.

The youngest also faces charges of undermining China's national anthem - including "intentionally posting altered lyrics" - and desecrating the national flag.

Calls for separatism

The police did not specify what content was deemed seditious in the messages posted on social networks by the two men.

Wen Wei Po, a pro-Beijing newspaper, said the publications in question included calls for separatism or sanctions against magistrates and police officers in charge of national security.

Sedition is a vague concept that can be applied to any word of “hate, outrage or disaffection” towards the government.

She is liable to a sentence of up to two years in prison for a first conviction.

This offense applies under a law enacted in 1938, when the territory was a British colony.

Hunt for pro-democracy activists

The text had fallen into oblivion for decades until prosecutors invoked it again after the protests.

Last week, Hong Kong authorities arrested a man on charges of sedition for playing the British anthem on a harmonica for a crowd gathered outside the British consulate during Queen Elizabeth II's funeral.

Since 2020, authorities have also used a new national security law imposed by Beijing to prosecute pro-democracy activists and opposition figures.

By mid-September, Hong Kong had arrested 215 people under the national security law and nearly 130 of them have been charged.

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