Deputy District Judge Peter Hui sentenced computer technician Ng Man-ho on Thursday, a month after the 27-year-old, who ran a Telegram group called SUCK Channel, was found guilty of seven charges of conspiring to incite others to commit illegal acts during the 2019 extradition bill protests and subsequent months. The court said the defendant had also incited people to commit public nuisance, with messages calling on them to take part in rallies and demonstrations including at Hong Kong International Airport, to block roads and to paralyse the public transportation system. Various forms of protest promoted on the messaging platform included general strikes, lunchtime protests and silent sit-ins. Earlier, crypto enthusiasts had created a self-described “meme app” dubbed “gm” app wherein users would greet each other with “gm” or “good morning” messages. However, in September 2021, the gm app was down after a hacker reportedly gained access to the user data. 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. The public channel had more than 109,000 subscribers, Judge Hui said. Ng had the power to remove or amend the messages in the channel, but he “allowed them to exist.”
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