Chief Executive contender Carrie Lam has said she has no plans to open a Facebook account, unlike other candidates.
“I like to be hands-on, [but] I don’t like opening a Facebook to let other people manage it – and there is technical difficulty in learning to do it well in a short time,” she said during a Commercial Radio programme on Wednesday.
She took part in her first Facebook live session during the programme, though it was not launched by her.
She said – if she were elected – opening a Facebook account would be a “main item to look into.”
“We need to find more ways to directly communicate with the public. I don’t know if you remember, I was the first official to open a blog in 2002,” she said. “It was even made into a book later. So I am very willing to directly communicate with people.”
Her campaign team members, Executive Councillor Bernard Chan and Commission on Youth chairman Lau Ming-wai, have posted photos on Facebook for Lam.
But Chan and Lau’s posts received hundreds of “angry” emoji reactions, whilst Chan claimed that Lam was “super popular.”
In response, Lam said usually views on her online were more negative, and she will work hard to communicate better.
Lam received very positive coverage by traditional pro-Beijing media titles Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po over the weekend. But Lam said it was only a sign of “press freedom.”
“Undeniably, Apple Daily, Oriental Daily, Hong Kong Economic Journal, have published strong criticism against me since December 10 [last year],” she said.
Competitors
John Tsang, the former financial secretary who has announced his chief executive run on Thursday, has made good use of his public personal account. He opened a new Facebook page on Thursday and asked followers to “like” it.
Retired Woo Kwok-hing opened his page months ago when he announced his run, whilst lawmaker Regina Ip has been using her page for years.
Facebook have officially authenticated the trio’s pages by giving them blue verification ticks.
Lam is now the only contender who does not have a public account or page. There have been pages set up claiming to be Lam’s campaign page, but none have been authenticated.
