Ng Man-ho, a 27-year-old computer technician, was convicted last month of seven counts of incitement charges after he made use of the 100,000-member Chinese-language channel that he runs and manages to post "seditious messages," which had been shut down since August 2020. Ng, who had pleaded not guilty to all charges, had been detained for more than 20 months. His channel was said to have contained around 120 messages and photos that incited others to vandalise pro-government shops and commit criminal damage targeting police stations. In 2018, Telegram’s audience reached 200 million people, with 500,000 new users joining the messenger every day. It was launched for iOS on 14 August 2013 and Android on 20 October 2013. The group’s featured image is of a Pepe frog yelling, often referred to as the “REEEEEEE” meme. Pepe the Frog was created back in 2005 by Matt Furie and has since become an internet symbol for meme culture and “degen” culture. Judge Hui described Ng as inciting others to “commit a massacre” with three posts teaching people to make “toxic chlorine gas bombs,” target police stations, police quarters and the city’s metro stations. This offence was “rather serious,” the court said.
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