Google has stood its ground in refusing a request by Hong Kong’s government to ensure the Chinese national anthem appears as a top search result for certain keyword queries, stressing it will not manually manipulate organic web listings.

But the company on Dec 15 pledged to continue to engage with the government and explain how its platforms and removal policies worked.

The tech giant broke its silence three days after Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung accused the company of “double standards​​​” and questioned its explanation that it could not change the algorithm-determined results.

Beijing also weighed in on the matter on Dec 14 by reminding Google of its “obligation” to disseminate correct information to the public.​

In a reply to the Post, the company maintained it was not its practice to manually manipulate web listings.

“Google handles billions of search queries every day, so we build ranking systems to automatically surface relevant, high quality, and helpful information. We do not manually manipulate organic web listings to determine the ranking of a specific page,” its spokesman said.

“In keeping with our commitment to maximise access to information, we do not remove web results except for specific reasons outlined in our global policy documentation.”

Google’s policies state it will block or remove search results related to child sexual abuse imagery or material, highly personal information and spam, as well as content demanded by website owners and valid legal requests.

According to Google, its content policies balance “the real concerns that people may have about certain types of content” and “the need for a search engine to provide access to information”.

The row between the government and Google was triggered by a series of anthem-related mix-ups during overseas sport tournaments.

At a rugby match in South Korea’s Incheon last month, a song linked to the 2019 anti-government protests, Glory To Hong Kong, was played instead of the Chinese national anthem March Of The Volunteers.

Asia Rugby, the organisers of the tournament, earlier admitted the wrong song had been downloaded from the Internet and apologised for the mix-up.

The national anthem was also labelled incorrectly in a broadcast graphic at two rugby matches.

The local government previously said Google had a role in the error, noting a song labelled as Hong Kong’s national anthem was available for download in the company’s search results, even though it was “factually wrong”.

Tang on Monday said Google’s claim its hands were tied was “incomprehensible” and “unacceptable” given that one could spend money on adverts to get one’s posts promoted.

Tang also accused the tech company of “double standards”, saying it had pledged to follow a recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union that required the removal of search results about the bloc’s residents if they could prove the information was wrong.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Wednesday also hit out at the tech giant, saying Beijing would back the Hong Kong government’s “resolute defence of the national anthem’s dignity”.​ -

 - SCMP