<![CDATA['Hong Kong Reddit': how leaderless extradition protests took a lead from social media]>

Liang Bin, a law student from Hong Kong, checks the online forum LIHKG every 15 minutes to keep up with the fast-developing anti-extradition movement.

"It is a bit exhausting," said Liang, 35. "It's more tiring than work."

It all began in early June, when a rally against the government's polarising extradition bill drew an estimated 1 million Hongkongers to the streets.

When the government refused to back down, netizens quickly drew up a plan to surround Hong Kong's legislature on June 12, in a bid to stop the bill's passage.

Instead of asking protesters to besiege the Legislative Council, they created online events inviting people to a "picnic" at nearby Tamar Park, in Admiralty.

Tens of thousands responded and successfully locked down the area, in a mass demonstration that eventually led to the suspension of the bill.

Despite being exhausted from joining the protests, Liang has continued to browse LIHKG for ongoing discussions related to the movement.

Anti-extradition bill protesters gathering outside the Legislative Council Complex in Tamar on June 12. Photo: May Tse alt=Anti-extradition bill protesters gathering outside the Legislative Council Complex in Tamar on June 12. Photo: May Tse

Netizens and pressure groups are now demanding the bill's full withdrawal. They also want arrested protesters not to be prosecuted, and have called for a probe into alleged use of force by the police.

In their latest feat on Tuesday, netizens raised more than HK$5 million to place letters on the front pages of the Financial Times and The New York Times, urging the international community to support the movement.

The bill aimed to let Hong Kong transfer suspects on a case-by-case basis to jurisdictions with which it does not have extradition agreements, including mainland China.

Critics fear it will allow Beijing to target political opponents, noting that fair trials are not guaranteed on the mainland.

According to a survey of hundreds of people questioned in protest zones this month, Liang is not alone in using online platforms that allow users to speak anonymously.

The survey was done by Dr Edmund Cheng Wai, an assistant professor at Baptist University's Department of Government and International Studies, together with other scholars. It found about a third of respondents used the online forum LIHKG, which is dubbed "Hong Kong Reddit" and known for emphasising freedom of speech.

While it did not play a direct role in the anti-extradition movement, its administrators pulled all advertisements from the platform for about two weeks in June to shorten loading time.

They also extended the number of replies allowed on some threads from 1,001 to 5,001 "for more convenient discussions".

More than half of those polled also used Telegram, the encrypted mobile messaging app for broadcasting information and forming private and open discussion groups.

Data from another survey, answered by more than 1,000 people at two rallies, indicated the anti-extradition movement included many first-time demonstrators, with more than a fifth saying they had never been to a mass protest before. About one in five were aged 25 or younger.

Cheng described the anti-extradition movement as "a decentralised movement with no leaders".

"Participants mostly networked through social media platforms that share instant information and deliberate on their next moves," he said.

Trading firm worker Adam Yip Yat-san, 32, who took part in the recent protests, agreed with Cheng's assessment and said it was different to the 2014 Occupy protests that shut down several parts of the city for 79 days. "During Occupy, we mostly listened to the 'main stage' and cooperated, as we were young and inexperienced with mass resistance," he said.

On online platforms, the term "main stage" often refers to the students and pro-democracy groups that coordinated actions during the 2014 protests.

This time, Yip said, people turned to online platforms, such as LIHKG, for information and made up their minds themselves whether to participate.

Anti-extradition bill protesters gather around the Legislative Council Complex in Tamar, Hong Kong. Photo: Edmond So alt=Anti-extradition bill protesters gather around the Legislative Council Complex in Tamar, Hong Kong. Photo: Edmond So

Other protesters interviewed said the same.

Dale, an IT worker in his mid-20s who declined to give his full name, explained that people were free to express their ideas on online platforms, and that users picked the next course of action by supporting " or "upvoting" " the ideas they liked best.

One post which attracted more than 9,000 upvotes suggested that people lay a white flower in Admiralty to remember the protester who fell to his death on June 15.

The day after it appeared, marchers turned an area outside Pacific Place into a shrine filled with white chrysanthemums for the 35-year-old protester, surnamed Leung.

But not every decision made online has been carried out successfully.

During the 15-hour siege of police headquarters in Wan Chai on June 21, political group Demosisto organised a poll on Telegram, asking if protesters preferred to leave or stay.

Although more than 80 per cent voted to leave before midnight, protesters only cleared out at 2.40am the next day.

Going online also allowed protesters to stay anonymous, something they carried through at the protests. Most demonstrators turned up wearing masks, and some urged photographers not to take close-up shots of them.

Apparently they were keen to avoid what happened during the Mong Kok unrest of 2016, when about 40 protesters were charged with rioting offences.

One of the activists in that incident, Edward Leung Tin-kei, a former spokesman of the political group Hong Kong Indigenous, was sentenced to six years in jail for his part in the unrest.

In the recent protests, some people prefaced online comments on their involvement with phrases such as "I dreamt that...", in an apparent bid to avoid liability.

Others avoided mentioning the word "protest" altogether, choosing instead to say they were joining a "picnic" outside the legislature.

Cheng speculated that using such terms allowed protesters to differentiate between insiders and outsiders on the protest grounds.

Masked demonstrators who marched from Causeway Bay to the Central Government Offices in protest at Hong Kong's extradition bill. Photo: Sam Tsang alt=Masked demonstrators who marched from Causeway Bay to the Central Government Offices in protest at Hong Kong's extradition bill. Photo: Sam Tsang

He noted that the online platforms also helped restrain most protesters from taking radical action.

"On the one hand they were very passionate, but the most popular posts [on LIHKG] also told people to watch out for traps and heed public opinion," Cheung said.

Professor Francis Lee Lap-fung, director of Chinese University's School of Journalism and Communication, said decentralisation was possible in the recent protests because technology allowed people to form small groups to initiate and coordinate their actions.

He said decentralisation also fulfilled the purpose of the current movement.

"The movement needs a diverse range of tactics and actions in order to exert stronger pressure on the government, but it is difficult for one main organiser to do that," Lee said.

While pro-democracy groups had organised mass rallies and marches against the bill, netizens took the initiative in launching smaller and more mobile protests, such as when protesters twice disrupted government departments' operations by blocking entrances to buildings.

Lee said the current movement allowed people to participate in whatever way they preferred. "In these ways it empowers the movement," he said.

An anti-extradition protester outside the Department of Justice in Central, Hong Kong. Photo: Winson Wong alt=An anti-extradition protester outside the Department of Justice in Central, Hong Kong. Photo: Winson Wong

Despite preparations made before June 12, Dale said cooperation among protesters was not optimal on the day itself, as poor mobile signals made it almost impossible to go online.

"We did not know if we should push forward, or when to do so," he said.

Laura, 18, a student who also declined to give her full name, ran into the same problem while volunteering as a first-aider.

"Without Telegram and WhatsApp, people did not know what they had to do," she said.

James, a protester in his mid-20s, cautioned against relying on online polls to make decisions.

"There are too many fake accounts and infiltrators online, the results can be easily affected," he said.

He felt it would be better for protesters to form small groups on various sites to plan their next moves.

Looking ahead, Cheng said protesters might find it hard to sustain the decentralised nature of the movement.

Another issue, he said, was whether participation in the street protests would translate into long-term political involvement, such as showing up to vote.

"The challenge lies with mobilising people in the next political crisis, and whether the government can still be restricted," Cheng said.

Laura said it would be hard to sustain the movement if netizens became disenfranchised.

"When there isn't someone feeding you information constantly, you might care less," she said.

For now, the movement continues despite uncertainty.

On Wednesday night, Liang and thousands of Hongkongers rallied at Edinburgh Place in Central, in a bid to launch the anti-extradition issue into the G20 summit in Japan.

Liang said it was clever to elevate the issue to the international level, but added that the prolonged campaign had begun reminding him of the Occupy movement.

"Officials are employing the same delay tactics, hoping protesters will make mistakes and lead to a change in public opinion," Liang said.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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