Security Bureau weighs action as years-old Joshua Wong film tops Netflix charts following state-backed media report

The Security Bureau has said it is “taking relevant follow-up actions” after a state-backed newspaper flagged a years-old Netflix documentary about pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong.

Released nearly a decade ago, Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower shot to the top of the Netflix charts last week following a report last Monday in Wen Wei Po.

The story said: “Wen Wei Po discovered that a film glorifying his offences remains available on the US streaming platform Netflix. Its nearly two-minute trailer ‘filled with incitement’ can be viewed in Hong Kong without a paid subscription.”

Wong, who will turn 30 next month, has been in jail since he was 24 after he was convicted of subversion under the national security law.

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The newspaper claimed that the film “distorts the facts to valorise Wong” and “features several anti-China disruptors spreading inciting statements that subvert conventional values.”

The award-winning documentary, directed by Joe Piscatella, follows Wong’s rise to prominence amid the 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. It highlights his early involvement with Scholarism’s anti-patriotic education protests, as well as his later efforts to demand free elections.

In a Monday response to HKFP’s enquiries, a Security Bureau spokesperson said that all videos broadcast in Hong Kong must comply with local law, including the city’s two security laws.

“If any suspected illegal act is identified, the law enforcement agencies will handle it in accordance with the law… In relation to the video mentioned in the enquiry, the HKSAR Government is taking relevant follow-up actions,” they said, adding that Hong Kong is “committed to ensuring that laws are observed and strictly enforced.”

“The HKSAR Government calls on members of the public to think critically and discerningly, and dissociate themselves from any act or activity that endangers national security,” they added.

The bureau did not directly address HKFP’s questions as to whether current regulations would be applied to films predating the 2020 security law.

As of last Friday, the Joshua Wong documentary had become the most viewed film on Netflix in Hong Kong, according to checks by an HKFP reporter. Its trailer on YouTube has amassed over a quarter of a million views since 2017.

Netflix did not respond to HKFP’s enquiries last week.

Second security law charge

Wen Wei Po’s report came after Wong was convicted again under the security law earlier this month – he pleaded guilty to conspiring to collude with foreign forces.

Under the latest charge, the 29-year-old stands accused of conducting international lobbying for sanctions against Hong Kong or Beijing, requesting that the US introduce the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in 2019, and imploring other Western countries to impose Magnitsky-style sanction programmes.

The offence carries a maximum penalty of life behind bars.

In 2024, the government obtained an injunction to restrict the online distribution and performance of the protest anthem Glory to Hong Kong.

Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.

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