Remove or update a news article about you in Hong Kong

Where Hong Kong news about you keeps resurfacing

Hong Kong reads its news online, and a handful of outlets dominate. HK01 is the twelfth most visited website in the territory, Sing Tao’s stheadline.com sits at number 24 and on.cc at 42 (Similarweb, August 2026). An arrest report or a magistrates’ court story published by one of them is quickly picked up by the others, pasted into Facebook pages, discussed in a forum thread and indexed by Google under your Chinese and English names.

The harm is practical. A hiring manager runs your name before a second interview, a landlord checks a prospective tenant, a client searches you before signing. Charges may have been dropped, the conviction may be spent in your own life, but the headline still ranks.

• Chinese-language outlets: HK01, on.cc, Sing Tao (stheadline.com), Yahoo Hong Kong news
• English-language outlets: South China Morning Post, The Standard, other English news sites
• Copies: news aggregators, content farms that rewrite the story, Facebook pages, LIHKG and Discuss.com.hk threads quoting it

What the law offers, and what it does not

Hong Kong has no right to be forgotten. In 2020 the Administrative Appeals Board said there is “no independent right to be forgotten under applicable laws of Hong Kong” and that the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance does not reach Google LLC (AAB No. 15/2019, 7 August 2020). Google removes search results under its own policies, not because a Hong Kong statute requires it.

News organisations also enjoy wide room under the PDPO for their journalism. What remains useful is narrower but real: a newsroom based in Hong Kong is a data user, and when it holds inaccurate personal data about you, a correction request under the Ordinance is a legitimate tool. In the *David Webb* case, the Privacy Commissioner ordered links to court judgments that the Judiciary had later anonymised to be taken down, and the appeal was dismissed on 27 October 2015. Re-publishing names after a court has removed them can therefore raise a privacy question.

In practice, though, most article updates come from editorial goodwill: a clear, factual request showing that the story is outdated, incomplete or now disproportionate. That is the request we write.

What we can ask a publisher to do

• Add an update: charges withdrawn, acquittal, case closed, settlement reached. Editors often accept this when you send the court outcome.
• Anonymise: replace your full name with a surname or initial, remove your photo, your building or your employer.
• Correct: wrong age, wrong district, a mix-up with another person of the same name, a quotation you never gave.
• De-index or unpublish: rarer, usually for minor cases involving private individuals, and always the publisher’s decision.
• Remove copies: rewritten versions on content farms and aggregators, which have far less reason to keep your name online.

News, forums and defamation: our related services

A news story rarely travels alone. These pages cover what usually comes with it: the forum threads that discuss it and the posts that go further than the facts.

Removal routes compared

Several routes often run in parallel for one article. This table shows who decides each one.

How we handle a news article

1. Free written assessment. You send the links through the contact form. We tell you in writing which route fits each one, and when none does.
2. Evidence. You provide what supports the request: the court result, a letter withdrawing charges, proof of the error. We never ask for anything the editor does not need.
3. Request to the editor. We write in NetClearer’s name, acting for you: factual, polite, specific about the paragraph and the change requested. Never a threat and never a solicitor-style letter.
4. Copies and Google. We report the rewritten versions, then ask Google to refresh or remove the result once the source has changed.
5. Follow-up and report. We chase the newsroom, track each link and tell you what changed.

What we will not take on

• Political content, anything linked to national-security cases, protests, officials, police or judges.
• Public-interest journalism and court reporting about public figures or ongoing proceedings.
• Requests to hide a story from the authorities or from a court. We do not handle political, national-security or public-interest content.

NetClearer is not a law firm. If you believe an article is defamatory and want damages or an injunction, consult a Hong Kong solicitor; our defamatory post removal page explains what we do alongside one.

Price and discretion

HK$255 per link, HK$608 for 3 links and HK$1,753 for 10 links, fixed price, no extra fees, paid by card through Stripe. Work starts within 48 hours. An article plus its copies is usually 3 to 10 links. We never contact your employer, your family or the journalist personally outside the newsroom’s official channels. All packs are on the pricing page.