Former Hong Kong leader CY Leung shows up at Google office in city to lodge complaint about online scams using his image
- Ex-chief executive reveals in Facebook post that he visited internet giant’s office unannounced, with company representative vowing to rectify issue
- He says Google staff initially thought he was there to complain about anthem search results, a matter he describes as ‘another story for later’
Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying has lodged a complaint to Google at its office in the city, accusing the American internet giant of “conspiring with criminal syndicates” and advertising financial scams featuring him and other officials.
In a Facebook post on late Wednesday, Leung revealed he had visited the company’s local branch in Causeway Bay and spoke through teleconferencing with William Farris, Google’s Taiwan-based managing counsel for Greater China, who vowed to remove the ads in question.
Leung said he showed up at the Google office unannounced in the morning that day, and spoke to Farris for 20 minutes.
“I … demanded that Google stop conspiring with a criminal syndicates and take down all deceptive advertisements immediately,” he wrote.
Hong Kong officials have been targeted in a latest trend of alleged fraudulent online advertising involving the unauthorised use of their images to drum up credibility for cryptocurrency investments.
Leung said he received a call later in the day from Farris telling him that Google would take action. He has also reported the case to police.
A Google spokesman said the company had strict policies governing the types of advertisements allowed on its platform. “Ads that intend to mislead or deceive users are a violation of those policies. When we find ads that violate our policies, we remove them,” he said.
According to Google, it was aware of the scams and had been removing those that were flagged to it. The platform also has policies to suspend accounts that perpetuate such scams.
