Hong Kong police accuse a mobile game app of promoting armed revolution
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong police on Tuesday accused a mobile game application of advocating armed revolution and promoting secessionist agendas, saying that those who publish it or share it with others online may risk violating national security laws.
The announcement — the first to publicly denounce a gaming app — indicates that authorities are widening the crackdown that has followed anti-government protests in 2019. Authorities have crushed or silenced many dissenting voices through prosecutions under the 2020 national security law imposed by Beijing and a similar, homegrown law enacted last year.
In a statement, police warned residents against downloading the 'Reversed Front: Bonfire" application, saying those with the app installed might be seen as possessing a publication with a seditious intention.
They also warned people against providing financial assistance to the application developer, including making in-app purchases.
''Reversed Front: Bonfire' was released under the guise of a game with the aim of promoting secessionist agendas such as 'Taiwan independence' and 'Hong Kong independence,' advocating armed revolution and the overthrow of the fundamental system of the People's Republic of China,' police said.
The game application was developed by ESC Taiwan, which did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment. On the application's Facebook page, the developer posted about surging searches for the game name and a Hong Kong broadcaster's news report about Tuesday's development.
According to the application's introduction, players can assume the role of Hong Kong, Tibet, Uyghur, Taiwan or Cathaysian Rebel factions, among others, to overthrow the communist regime. They may also choose to lead the communists to defeat all enemies.
The game's website says it 'is a work of nonfiction. Any similarity to actual agencies, policies or ethnic groups of the PRC in this game is intentional.'
On Tuesday night, the app was still available on Apple's App Store but not on the Google Play store. The game publisher last month said Google Play had taken the app down because it did not prohibit users from adopting hateful language in naming.
Apple, Google and Meta have not immediately commented.
After playing the game for about three months, Kuo Hao Fu in Taiwan said he found that its content uses a humorous approach to describe serious political issues. Fu disagreed with the police accusations, saying players can also choose to be part of the force representing China.
'The Hong Kong police's actions demonstrate how Hong Kong's democratic freedoms have been controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,' he said. 'When even this level cannot be tolerated, it completely destroys creative freedom in gaming.'
China considers Taiwan its own territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. Many Taiwanese in the self-ruled island showed concerns about Hong Kong's declining freedoms under Beijing's grip.
The Beijing and Hong Kong governments insist the city's national security laws were necessary to return stability to the city following the protests.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Hundreds protest in The Hague against NATO, days before the Dutch city hosts alliance summit
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Hundreds of people protested Sunday against NATO and military spending and against a possible conflict with Iran, two days before a summit of the alliance in The Hague that is seeking to increase allies' defense budgets. 'Let's invest in peace and sustainable energy,' Belgian politician Jos d'Haese told the crowd at a park not far from the summit venue. Although billed as a demonstration against NATO and the war in Gaza, protesters were joined by Iranians who held up banners saying 'No Iran War,' the day after the United States launched attacks against three of Iran's nuclear sites. 'We are opposed to war. People want to live a peaceful life,' said 74-year-old Hossein Hamadani, an Iranian who lives in the Netherlands. Look at the environment. 'Things are not good. So why do we spend money on war?' he added. The Netherlands is hosting the annual meeting of the 32-nation alliance starting Tuesday, with leaders scheduled to meet Wednesday. The heads of government want to hammer out an agreement on a hike in defense spending demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump. The deal appeared largely done last week, until Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that committing Madrid to spending 5% of its gross domestic product on defense 'would not only be unreasonable, but also counterproductive.' U.S. allies have ramped up defense spending since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, but almost a third of them still don't meet NATO's current target of at least 2% of their gross domestic product. The summit is being protected by the biggest ever Dutch security operation, code named 'Orange Shield,' involving thousands of police and military personnel, drones, no-fly zones and cybersecurity experts. ___ Associated Press writer Molly Quell in The Hague contributed.
Hamilton Spectator
4 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Alarm grows after the US inserts itself into Israel's war against Iran with strikes on nuclear sites
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The world grappled Sunday with the enormous implications after the United States inserted itself into Israel's war against Iran with an attack that raised urgent questions about what remained of Tehran's nuclear program and how its weakened military might respond. Some observers warned that the future of worldwide efforts to contain the spread of nuclear weapons by peaceful means would be at stake in the days ahead, while fears of a wider regional conflict loomed large. The price of oil rose as markets reacted. Iran lashed out at the U.S. for crossing 'a very big red line' with its risky gambit to strike three Iranian nuclear sites with missiles and 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs . Iran's U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, told an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council that the U.S. 'decided to destroy diplomacy,' and that the Iranian military will decide the 'timing, nature and scale' of a 'proportionate response.' Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was flying to Moscow to coordinate with close ally Russia. Tens of thousands of American troops are based in the Middle East. Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said any country used by the U.S. to strike Iran 'will be a legitimate target for our armed forces,' the state-run IRNA news agency reported. At first, the Trump administration indicated it wanted to restart diplomatic talks with Iran. 'Let's meet directly,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with CBS. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. 'does not seek war.' But President Donald Trump, who has warned of additional strikes if Tehran retaliates against U.S. forces, later mused about the possibility of regime change in Iran. The U.S. strikes, confirmed by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, hit the Fordo and Natanz enrichment facilities, as well as the Isfahan nuclear site . Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog said there were no immediate signs of radioactive contamination around them. Trump claimed the U.S. 'completely and fully obliterated' the sites, but the Pentagon reported 'sustained, extremely severe damage and destruction.' Israeli army spokesman Effie Defrin said 'the damage is deep,' but an assessment with the U.S. continued. 'We are very close to achieving our goals' in removing Iran's nuclear and missile threats, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Sunday. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told the Security Council that no one was in a position to assess the underground damage at Fordo, which is dug deep into a mountain, but visible craters tracked with the U.S. announcements. He said IAEA inspectors should be allowed to look at the sites. The U.N. nuclear watchdog's governing board planned an emergency meeting Monday. Grossi stressed that a path for diplomacy remained, but if that fails, 'violence and destruction could reach unthinkable levels,' and global efforts at nuclear nonproliferation 'could crumble.' With the attack that was carried out without detection , the United States inserted itself into a war it spent decades trying to avoid. Success could mean ending Iran's nuclear ambitions and eliminating the last significant state threat to the security of Israel, its close ally. Failure — or overreach — could plunge the U.S. into another long and unpredictable conflict . For Iran's supreme leader, it could mark the end of a campaign to transform the Islamic Republic into a greater regional power that holds enriched nuclear material a step away from weapons-grade. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last spoke publicly on Wednesday, warning the U.S. that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will 'result in irreparable damage for them.' Iran, battered by Israel's largest-ever assault on it that began on June 13 , has limited options for retaliation , as key allies have mostly stayed out of the conflict. It could attack U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East with the missiles and rockets that Israel hasn't destroyed. It could attempt to close a key bottleneck for global oil supplies, the Strait of Hormuz, between it and the United Arab Emirates. Or it could hurry to develop a nuclear weapon with what remains of its program. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said its program will not be stopped. New questions about Iran's nuclear stockpile Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program was peaceful, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Trump and Israeli leaders have argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon. Israel has significantly degraded Iran's air defenses and offensive missile capabilities and damaged its nuclear enrichment facilities. But only the U.S. military has the bunker-buster bombs that officials believe offered the best chance of destroying sites deep underground. A total of 14 of the bombs were used on Natanz and Fordo, according to the Pentagon. Experts scrambled to answer the urgent question: What has happened to Iran's stockpile of uranium and centrifuges? Satellite images taken by Planet Labs PBC after the U.S. strikes, analyzed by The Associated Press, show damage to the facility. They suggest Iran packed the entrance tunnels to Fordo with dirt and had trucks at the facility ahead of the strikes. Several Iranian officials, including Atomic Energy Organization of Iran spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi, have claimed Iran removed nuclear material from targeted sites. Before the Israeli military campaign began, Iran said it had declared a third, unknown site as a new enrichment facility. 'Questions remain as to where Iran may be storing its already enriched stocks … as these will have almost certainly been moved to hardened and undisclosed locations, out of the way of potential Israeli or U.S. strikes,' said Darya Dolzikova, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute focused on nonproliferation issues. Global leaders responded with shock and calls for restraint. Egypt warned of 'grave repercussions' for the region. Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Middle East-based Fifth Fleet, called on Iran and the U.S. to 'quickly resume talks.' Trump's decision and the risks The decision to attack was a risky one for Trump , who won the White House partly on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts . But Trump also vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. He initially hoped that the threat of force would bring the country's leaders to give up its nuclear program. For Netanyahu, the strikes were the culmination of a decades-long campaign to get the U.S. to strike Israel's chief regional rival and its disputed nuclear program. Netanyahu praised Trump, saying his decision 'will change history.' Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, but the country has never acknowledged it. Iran and Israel trade more attacks Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Amir, called the U.S. attack a key 'turning point' but added: 'We still have targets to strike and objectives to complete.' Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it launched a barrage of 40 missiles at Israel , including its Khorramshahr-4, which can carry multiple warheads. Israeli authorities said more than 80 people suffered mostly minor injuries. Late Sunday, the Israeli military said it again struck military infrastructure sites in Tehran and western Iran. Earlier, explosions boomed in Bushehr, home to Iran's only nuclear power plant, three semiofficial media outlets reported. Israel's military said it struck missile launchers in Bushehr, Isfahan and Ahvaz, as well as a command center in the Yazd area where it said Khorramshahr missiles were stored. Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 865 people and wounded 3,396 others, according to the Washington-based group Human Rights Activists. The group said of those dead, it identified 363 civilians and 215 security force personnel. In Israel, at least 24 people have been killed and over 1,000 wounded. At Turkey's border with Iran, one departing Iranian defended his country's nuclear program. 'We were minding our own business,' Behnam Puran said. ___ Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi, Mehdi Fattahi and Amir Vahdat in Iran; Aamer Madhani in Morristown, New Jersey; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv; Lolita Baldor in Narragansett, Rhode Island; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Rusen Takva in Van, Turkey; Joah Boak in Washington; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this story.
San Francisco Chronicle
4 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
A confidential brief urges the ICC to investigate Wagner's promotion of atrocities in West Africa
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Editor's Note: This story contains graphic images and descriptions of atrocities. The International Criminal Court has been asked to review a confidential legal report arguing that the Russia-linked Wagner Group has committed war crimes by spreading images of apparent atrocities in West Africa on social media, including ones alluding to cannibalism, according to the brief seen exclusively by The Associated Press. In the videos, men in military uniform are shown butchering corpses of what appear to be civilians with machetes, hacking out organs and posing with severed limbs. One fighter says he is about to eat someone's liver. Another says he is trying to remove their heart. Violence in the Sahel, an arid belt of land south of the Sahara Desert, has reached record levels as military governments battle extremist groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Turning from Western allies like the United States and France, the governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have instead embraced Russia and its mercenary fighters as partners in offensives. Observers say the new approach has led to the kind of atrocities and dehumanization not seen in the region for decades. Social media offers a window into the alleged horrors that often occur in remote areas with little or no oversight from governments or outside observers. Experts say the images, while difficult to verify, could serve as evidence of war crimes. The confidential brief to the ICC goes further, arguing that the act of circulating the images on social media could constitute a war crime, too. It is the first such argument made to the international court. 'Wagner has deftly leveraged information and communications technologies to cultivate and promote its global brand as ruthless mercenaries. Their Telegram network in particular, which depicts their conduct across the Sahel, serves as a proud public display of their brutality,' said Lindsay Freeman, director of the Technology, Law & Policy program at the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law. Under the Rome Statute that created the ICC, the violation of personal dignity, mainly through humiliating and degrading treatment, constitutes a war crime. Legal experts from UC Berkeley, who submitted the brief to the ICC last year, argue that such treatment could include Wagner's alleged weaponization of social media. 'The online distribution of these images could constitute the war crime of outrages on personal dignity and the crime against humanity of other inhumane acts for psychologically terrorizing the civilian population,' Freeman said. She said there is legal precedent in some European courts for charging the war crime of outrages on personal dignity based predominantly on social media evidence. The brief was submitted to the ICC before the U.S. sanctioned the court earlier this year. It asks the court to investigate individuals with Wagner and the governments of Mali and Russia for alleged abuses in northern and central Mali between December 2021 and July 2024, including extrajudicial killings, torture, mutilation and cannibalism. It also asks the court to investigate crimes 'committed through the internet, which are inextricably linked to the physical crimes and add a new dimension of harm to an extended group of victims.' The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC said their investigations have focused on alleged war crimes committed since January 2012, when insurgents seized communities in Mali's northern regions of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu. The ICC told the AP it could not comment on the brief but said it was aware of "various reports of alleged massive human rights violations in other parts of Mali,' adding that it 'follows closely the situation.' World's deadliest region for terrorism, think tank says As the world largely focuses on wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, the Sahel has become the deadliest place on earth for extremism. Half of the world's nearly 8,000 victims of terrorism were killed across the territory last year, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace, which compiles yearly data. While the U.S. and other Western powers withdraw from the region, Russia has taken advantage, expanding military cooperation with several African nations via Wagner, the private security company. The network of mercenaries and businesses is closely linked to Russia's intelligence and military, and the U.S. State Department has described it as 'a transnational criminal organization.' Since Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash in 2023, Moscow has been developing a new organization, the Africa Corps, as a rival force under direct command of Russian authorities. Earlier this month, Wagner announced its withdrawal from Mali, declaring 'mission accomplished' in a Telegram post. In a separate Telegram post, Africa Corps said it is staying. In Mali, about 2,000 Russian mercenaries are fighting alongside the country's armed forces, according to U.S. officials. It is unclear how many have been with Wagner or are with the Africa Corps. Both the Russian mercenaries and local military allies have shared bloody imagery on social media to claim battlefield wins, observers say. 'The mutilation of civilians and combatants by all sides is disturbing enough,' said Corinne Dufka, a Sahel expert and the former head of Human Rights Watch in the region. "But the dissemination of these scenes on social media further elevates the depravity and suggests a growing and worrying level of dehumanization is taking root in the Sahel.' The confidential brief, along with AP reporting, shows that a network of social media channels, likely administrated by current or former Wagner members, has reposted content that the channels say are from Wagner fighters, promoting videos and photos appearing to show abuses by armed, uniformed men, often accompanied by mocking or dehumanizing language. While administrators of the channels are anonymous, open source analysts believe they are current or former Wagner fighters based on the content as well as graphics used, including in some cases Wagner's logo. AP analysis of the videos confirms the body parts shown are genuine, as well as the military uniforms. The videos and photos, in a mix of French and local languages, aim to humiliate and threaten those considered the enemies of Wagner and its local military allies, along with civilian populations whose youth face pressure to join extremist groups. But experts say it often has the opposite effect, prompting reprisal attacks and recruitment into the ranks of jihadis. If the videos aim to deter and terrorize, it's working, some in Mali say. The ones appearing to show atrocities committed by Malian soldiers 'caused a psychological shock in the Fulani community,' a representative of the nomadic community's civil society told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The Fulani are often caught in the middle of the fight against extremism, the focus of violence from both government forces and extremists, and of jihadi recruitment. Thousands of Fulani have fled to neighboring countries in fear of being victimized, the representative said, and asserted that at least 1,000 others disappeared last year after encountering Mali's army or allied militias, including Wagner. Condemnation and investigations In July last year, a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel reposted three videos of what appeared to be Mali's armed forces and the Dozo hunters, a local defense group often fighting alongside them, committing apparent abuses that allude to cannibalism. One video shows a man in the uniform of Mali's armed forces cooking what he says are body parts. Another shows a man dressed as a Dozo hunter cutting into a human body, saying he is about to eat the liver. In a third video, a group of Dozo fighters roasts what appears to be a human torso. One man carves off a hunk of flesh and tosses it to another. Mali's army ordered an investigation into the viral videos, which were removed from X for violating the platform's rules and put behind a paywall on Telegram. The army chief described it as 'rare atrocity' which was not aligned with the nation's military values, and 'competent services' would confirm and identify the perpetrators. It was not clear whether anyone was identified. A video apparently from Burkina Faso, shared on X the same month, showed an armed man in military pants and sleeveless shirt dancing, holding a severed hand and foot, at one point grinning as the foot dangled from his teeth. In another, a man in Burkinabe military uniform cuts through what appears to be a human body. He says: 'Good meat indeed. We are Cobra 2.' Another man is heard saying: 'This is BIR 15. BIR 15 always does well its job, by all means. Fatherland or death, we shall win.' BIR 15 Cobra 2 is the name of a special intervention unit created by Burkina Faso's ruler, Ibrahim Traore, to combat extremists. 'Fatherland or death' is the motto of pro-government forces. The videos were removed from X and put behind a paywall on Telegram. Burkina Faso's army condemned the videos' 'macabre acts' and described them as 'unbearable images of rare cruelty.' The army said it was working to identify those responsible, adding that it 'distances itself from these inhumane practices.' It was not clear whether anyone has been identified. Other posts shared by alleged Wagner-affiliated channels include images of what appear to be mutilated corpses and beheaded, castrated and dismembered bodies of people, including ones described as extremist fighters, often accompanied with mocking commentary. One post shows two white men in military attire with what appears to be a human roasting on a spit, with the caption: 'The meat you hunt always tastes better,' along with an emoji of a Russian flag. It is hard to know at what scale cannibalism might occur in the context of warfare in the Sahel, and actual cases are 'likely rare,' said Danny Hoffman, chair in international studies at the University of Washington. But "the real force of these stories comes from the fascination and fear they create,' Hoffman said of the videos, with the digital age making rumors of violence even more widespread and effective. 'Whether it is Wagner or local fighters or political leaders, being associated with cannibalism or ritual killings or mutilations is being associated with an extreme form of power," he said. Some of the graphic posts have been removed. Other content was moved behind a paywall. Telegram told the AP in a statement: 'Content that encourages violence is explicitly forbidden by Telegram's terms of service and is removed whenever discovered. Moderators empowered with custom AI and machine learning tools proactively monitor public parts of the platform and accept reports in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day.' It did not say whether it acts on material behind a paywall. 'White Uncles in Africa' The Telegram channel White Uncles in Africa has emerged as the leading source of graphic imagery and dehumanizing language from the Sahel, reposting all the Mali videos. UC Berkeley experts and open source analysts believe it is administered by current or former Wagner members, but they have not been able to identify them. While the channel re-posts images from subscribers, it also posts original content. In May of this year, the channel posted a photo of eight bodies of what appeared to be civilians, face-down on the ground with hands bound, with the caption: 'The white uncles found and neutralized a breeding ground for a hostile life form.' It also shared an image of a person appearing to be tortured, with the caption describing him as a 'hostile life form' being taken 'for research.' Human Rights Watch has documented atrocities committed in Mali by Wagner and other armed groups. It says accountability for alleged abuses has been minimal, with the military government reluctant to investigate its armed forces and Russian mercenaries. It has become difficult to obtain detailed information on alleged abuses because of the Malian government's 'relentless assault against the political opposition, civil society groups, the media and peaceful dissent,' said Ilaria Allegrozzi, the group's Sahel researcher. That has worsened after a U.N. peacekeeping mission withdrew from Mali in December 2023 at the government's request.
