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.
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
RSS