A Hong Kong YouTuber has been arrested on suspicion of publishing seditious statements in connection with the deadly Tai Po blaze, local media reported, citing unnamed sources.
On Wednesday, the police National Security Department reportedly apprehended a 26-year-old man surnamed Chan for acting with “seditious intention.” Sources told local media that the arrestee was online personality “Kenny,” who runs a YouTube channel called “Kowloon King.”
The channel shared at least two livestreams in the past week that mentioned the Wang Fuk Court fire in the title. The blaze, which broke out on November 26, engulfed seven out of eight blocks in the residential estate and has killed at least 159 people.
According to HK01 and Ming Pao, the YouTuber made “morally depraved” remarks, such as saying the fire victims carried “deep sins,” that the blaze was “karma,” and that there was “no need to sympathise with the dead and injured.”
HKFP has reached out to the police for confirmation.
Local media reported, citing sources, that police have made at least three arrests related to the tragedy under the sedition offence. None of the arrests were confirmed by the authorities.
Those apprehended reportedly included university student Miles Kwan, who organised a petition calling for an independent investigation into the blaze; former district councillor Kenneth Cheung; and a volunteer assisting victims with supplies.
On Tuesday, solicitor Bruce Liu, a former chair of the Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood, was taken in by the police force’s national security department. He had been scheduled to speak at a civil society press conference on the Wang Fuk Court fire, which was subsequently cancelled, citing “notification” from a “department.”
Sedition is not covered by the 2020 Beijing-imposed national security law, which targets secession, subversion, collusion with foreign forces, and terrorist acts and mandates up to life imprisonment. It was originally outlawed under the colonial-era Crimes Ordinance, with a maximum penalty of two years in prison. Authorities raised the penalty to seven years’ imprisonment when sedition was integrated into the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, also known as Article 23, which passed in March 2023.
