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. In handing down the sentence yesterday, deputy judge Peter Hui Shiu-keung of the district court said that even if Ng did not post the messages, he cannot shirk responsibility as the owner and administrator of such a big group for allowing these messages that incite illegal behaviors to exist. The group also hosted discussions on committing arson, Judge Hui said, including setting roadblocks on fire, hurling petrol bombs at police stations and teaching people to make such weapons. The conversation linked to arson went on for two to three months, Hui said. Developing social channels based on exchanging a single message isn’t exactly new, of course. Back in 2014, the “Yo” app was launched with the sole purpose of enabling users to send each other the greeting “Yo.” Telegram offers a powerful toolset that allows businesses to create and manage channels, groups, and bots to broadcast messages, engage in conversations, and offer reliable customer support via bots.
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