Hong Kong police have arrested a second man over the release of 23 unauthorised push notifications two months ago from the news app of TVB, the city’s biggest free-to-air broadcaster.
Officers detained the 19-year-old suspect in Sau Mau Ping last Wednesday.
Police this week said he was arrested on suspicion of accessing a computer with dishonest intent – an offence punishable by up to five years in jail.
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Hong Kong police arrest TVB worker over dodgy alerts sent out on news app
The man has been granted bail pending further investigation. The force said on Tuesday he was required to report back to police later this month.
He was the second man caught in connection with the case in two months. Police arrested a 27-year-old TVB employee over the same offence on May 3.
The first suspect was caught just hours after the 23 alerts were sent to app users over a 21-minute period, with the first going out at midnight on May 2.
The notifications carried messages such as “Patriots rule Hong Kong”, “Lee Ka Chiu meets the press”, “hihi”, “test” and “yooooooo”, with some written in simplified Chinese characters.
“TVB has carried out multifaceted investigations and has immediately strengthened system monitoring to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents,” the company said in a statement on May 3.
Officers from the force’s cyber security and technology crime bureau are investigating the case.
In July last year, a Form Six pupil was arrested for allegedly posting online messages to get people to boycott more than 100 businesses that advertised with TVB.
The 18-year-old was accused of posting the messages from May 2020 in a Facebook group and encouraging others to blacklist advertisers in an attempt to cause reputational damage and financial losses to the broadcaster.
Police said the teen had allegedly called for internet users to post “angry face” emojis on the social media platform and boycott firms that had placed advertisements with TVB.
The broadcaster was a frequent target of anti-government demonstrators during the city’s social unrest in 2019, with radical protesters accusing TVB of being pro-police.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Hong Kong police investigate after TVB’s news app sends out unauthorised push notifications
- Hong Kong police arrest TVB employee over unauthorised notifications sent out via broadcaster’s news app
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