Remove LIHKG threads and Hong Kong forum posts

Hong Kong’s own forums

Hong Kong has forums that exist nowhere else, written in Cantonese and read by millions. LIHKG is the ninth most visited website in Hong Kong (Similarweb, August 2026), with about 24.8 million visits in September 2025; Discuss.com.hk had about 14.6 million visits in December 2025; Baby-Kingdom, the parents’ forum, about 3.7 million (Semrush). HKGolden is smaller today but its old threads still rank on Google.

Anonymous posting makes these forums lively, and it also makes them the place where a colleague, a former partner, a teacher or a shop owner is discussed by name. A single thread can be screenshotted and shared within hours, and its title often appears on Google when someone searches your name. Hong Kong users search for ways out: Google suggests “lihkg 刪 post” and “起底罪lihkg” (Google Suggest, 3 October 2026).

Forum content we handle

• Naming threads: your full name, photo or job title, with accusations about your private life or your work.
• Personal data: HKID number, mobile number, estate, block and flat, your car plate or your child’s school.
• Workplace gossip about a named employee or manager that moves from a staff chat to a public thread.
• False statements about a business: a clinic, a tutoring centre or a renovation company accused of things that did not happen.
• Private screenshots and photos posted without consent, including intimate images: see intimate image removal.

Why a precise notice matters: the Fevaworks case

In *Oriental Press Group v Fevaworks Solutions* (Court of Final Appeal, 4 July 2013), the case concerned posts on HK Golden Forum. The court held that a forum host is not treated as the author of its users’ posts, but that once it is properly notified of defamatory content, it must remove it within a reasonable time or risk liability. The host in that case escaped liability because it removed the posts soon after being alerted.

For a Hong Kong forum, a clear notice therefore carries weight. Ours identifies each URL and post number, quotes the words, and explains why they are false or why the data is private. It is a factual notice from NetClearer acting for you, never a threat of litigation or a solicitor’s letter.

Doxxing threads: the PCPD can act

When a thread publishes your personal data to harass, intimidate or frighten you, it may be a doxxing offence under Part 9A of the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. The PCPD can serve a cessation notice on the forum and has removed 33,743 messages across 57 platforms since October 2021 (PCPD, 3 February 2026). We prepare and file the free complaint (Form OPS004) with your written authorisation; you remain the complainant and witness, and the PCPD decides.

Our method, step by step

1. Free written assessment of each thread and reply, with the ground we would use and a fixed quotation.
2. Reports through the forum’s report function and its published admin contact, followed by our notice for the posts that remain.
3. PCPD complaint in parallel where the posts are doxxing.
4. Google: thread pages showing your name with personal data or private images are submitted under Google’s own policies; Google decides.
5. Follow-up: forums are re-checked for quotes and reposts of the removed post, and you receive a written report.

What we refuse

We do not handle political, national-security, protest-related or public-interest content, in either direction, and we do not remove fair comment about a business. NetClearer is not a law firm: for an injunction, a disclosure order to identify a poster or a defamation claim, consult a Hong Kong solicitor.