The arrest was part of a crackdown on speech that the authorities say is inciting hatred of the government. Critics say officials are silencing calls for accountability.
The government is pushing hard to raise turnout in an election overshadowed by a deadly fire and public anger over safety lapses and official accountability.
The authorities accused “some foreign media” of smearing the government’s response to a fire at a high-rise complex, saying: “Do not say you have not been warned.”
Smoke rising from the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Hong Kong last month. Beijing’s national security arm in Hong Kong said that some foreign news outlets had twisted facts and spread false information.
Hong Kong, with some of the world’s highest housing costs and inequality, must now figure out how to help thousands of residents who lost friends, family and homes.
The authorities quickly arrested critics demanding accountability, signaling an expansive use of the security law to silence dissent over nonpolitical tragedies.
Investigators say contractors wrapped the buildings in substandard scaffolding netting and then sought to hide it from inspectors. The toll from the fire rose to 151.
At least eight workers died, and many of those who survived, after saving children and others in their care, are worried about losing their jobs and being forced to leave.
In his own words, William Li, a resident of the Hong Kong apartment complex that became an inferno, recounted how he and two neighbors survived until help arrived.
Residents of Wang Fuk Court apartments had raised concerns about flammable foam panels and scaffold netting, but the government did not take decisive action.
Hope of finding survivors has dwindled, with many residents of the Wang Fuk Court towers still unaccounted for. Eight more people were arrested Friday over the blaze.
The authorities said flammable netting and foam boards may have fueled the city’s deadliest blaze in nearly 80 years, killing more than 90 and prompting arrests.
The police said that building materials used by the company for the work at Wang Fuk Court may not have been up to fire safety standards. The police did not identify the company or who was arrested.
In the Grenfell Tower blaze, a combustible element called cladding that ran up the outside of the 24-story building allowed the fire to jump from floor to floor.
Residents describe how a blaze in a high-rise building in Hong Kong quickly spread, taking many by surprise and trapping an unknown number of people in the burning buildings.
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