Following an online threat earlier this week to kill President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) two daughters, police yesterday investigated another Internet threat that called for the assassination of the president.
The second online threat appeared on Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) Plurk account on Friday and was posted by a plurk user nicknamed “super_fans.”
The user “super_fans” left messages on Hau’s Plurk page at about 11am on Friday, calling on “people with lofty ideas” to kill Ma, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶).
“I call on people with lofty ideas around the world to kill Ma Ying-jeou the American,” the Plurker said, adding that such a call should be protected as freedom of expression.
According to the profile information provided by “super_fans,” he is a 49-year-old male.
Plurk.com is a popular online social networking service.
Plurker “super_fans” also cited examples of how people who threatened to assassinate former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) were found not guilty in court to support his argument that making such a call comes under freedom of expression.
He was referring to a case in 2006 in which an army honor guard named Chu Chao-kang (屈肇康) posted a message in an Internet chatroom saying that he wanted to harm Chen. He was later detained by the military, but prosecutors in Pingtung released him, saying he should not be found guilty for posting personal opinions online.
Taipei City Government Spokesman Chao Hsin-ping (趙心屏) said the city government informed the Presidential Office about the online threat on Friday night. Taipei City’s Police Department was looking into the identity of “super_fans,” she said.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said the Presidential Office would handle the issue according to the law and urged online users to express their opinions rationally.
Hau also posted a message on his own Plurk account condemning “super_fans.”
“Some recent remarks by Plurkers have gone beyond the boundary of ‘mutual respect,’” Hau said in the message. “Plurkers may have different views on political issues, and may disagree and debate with each other, these are all normal in a democracy. However, attacks, violence or abuse will not be tolerated.”
Other Plurkers reacted differently to the incident, with many saying Internet users should refrain from using such extreme language, while others argued that it was a freedom of speech issue.
On Thursday, the man who posted an online message threatening to kill Ma’s daughters — Lesley Ma (馬唯中) and Kelly Ma (馬元中) — was released on NT$50,000 bail after police questioned him for more than one hour.
The man, surnamed Chen, told police during questioning that he had made the threat because he was dissatisfied with the state of affairs in Taiwan.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS