Several Facebook 'secrets pages' disappear

Several Hong Kong community “sercrets pages” have vanished from Facebook after the arrest of two administrators of the Civil Servant Secrets Facebook page last Tuesday. A search by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE confirmed that “HA Secrets”, which was created by employees to discuss matters related to Hospital Authority is now inaccessible. Other disappeared pages include a number of academic forums including Students of Chinese University (CUHK), the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Baptist University, Polytechnic University, City University and the University of Science and Technology.

Moreover, local parenting forum “HK Parents Secrets Page” announced closure from 11 August 2022. The page had over 45K followers, according to Channel C. This comes after national security police arrested two civil servants on 9 August 2022 for allegedly publishing seditious posts online. The police said the men, aged 28 and 29, were administrators of a social media group, which was understood to be the Civil Servant Secrets Facebook page.

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Leung Chau Ting, chairman of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, said: “This platform was treated as a source of entertainment among colleagues for rants and chatter. Citizens and government workers can express their discontent and complaints anonymously via the forum, and there were occasions that the government took actions over the issues posted on the page.”

“As these ‘secrets pages’ are public, and the page administrators may not have time to monitor and filter all contents, they might be at risk in terms of posting sensitive contents that allegedly breach the national security law [...] Government employees have the obligations to stay neutral in terms of political stance. However, after the arrest last Tuesday, criticisms or complaints against the government working structure may not be seen in the near future," Leung said. 

Meanwhile, secretary for the civil service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi Yan said at a public event that, government employees who purely criticise the government or raise opinions are not counted as breaching the law, "the government has already set up different ways for employees to express opinions, we are happy to accept criticisms. As long as the context of online discussions does not involve confidential details, it is fine for civil servants to voice out," Yeung added.  

The “secrets” pages allow members of a community to comment on various issues, complain or gossip anonymously. The entries are initially garnered via an online form, which are then selected and posted by anonymous page administrators on the public Facebook page.

Such online community groups first emerged in Hong Kong in 2013, mainly among students who shared in-jokes, gossip, lovelorn confessions and rants, attracting hundreds of “likes” and comments, according to SCMP. As more community pages emerged, government employees utilised anonymous platforms such as Civil Servant Secrets and HA Secrets to vent about their career or conflicts with bosses, colleagues and members of the public, sometimes reflecting the inner workings of government.