A store in Hong Kong selling eyeglasses received nearly 100 harassing phone calls in a single day after it posted an advertisement supporting Apple Daily.

A front-page ad bought by iPoint Optical appeared in Apple Daily on Sunday with a slogan supporting the newspaper. The store was soon overwhelmed by anonymous phone calls almost every minute from 9:10 a.m.

The store’s proprietor, Michael, told Apple Daily that the callers would hang up before he could find out what they wanted. He said the calls were “malicious harassment” and that the callers had likely set up a program to target iPoint Optical.

The store was affected since it could not answer actual customers’ calls, Michael said. He encouraged customers to get in touch using instant messenger apps such as Signal or WhatsApp instead.

Michael said he did not regret placing the ad in Apple Daily and was not especially worried about the calls, as the store had faced similar harassment from government supporters before.

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