Hong Kong to ban face masks at protests in bid to quell months of unrest

Hong Kong will use an emergency ordinance for the first time in more than a half a century in order to ban face masks at public gatherings, according to local media outlets including the South China Morning Post and news channel TVB.

The government will enact the Emergency Regulations Ordinance after a special meeting of the city’s Executive Council on Friday, TVB reported, citing people it didn’t identify. First passed by the British government in 1922 to quell a seamen’s strike in Hong Kong’s harbor, the law was last used by the colonial administration to help put down riots that