TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Hong Kong protest song "Glory to Hong Kong" is no longer available on Spotify in Taiwan after a campaign by the Chinese government to ban all forms of the song.
On Wednesday (June 14), the anthem of Hong Kong's 2019 pro-democracy protests vanished from Spotify and Apple Music. While a few versions still appear on the Apple iTunes store in Taiwan, including a Mandarin version by the Taiwanese rock band The Chairman, the song is completely inaccessible on Spotify in Taiwan.
On June 5, the High Court of the Beijing-backed government in Hong Kong issued a formal written order that bans the “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing in any way (Glory to Hong Kong).” This includes posting the song on any internet-based platform or media accessible online.
The Hong Kong Free Press cited a Spotify spokesperson as claiming that the artist had taken down the song from the platform, rather than the company. On Wednesday evening, the group that originally uploaded the song, Dgx, issued a statement on its Facebook page, claiming it was "working on some technical issues not related to the streaming platforms" and apologized for the "temporary impact."
Spotify and Apple Music have yet to respond to requests from Taiwan News to comment on the sudden disappearance of the song from their platform.