Two Taipei City councilors yesterday accused Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of blocking Plurkers who sent negative messages about him on the micro-blogging service similar to Twitter, and urged him to embrace different opinions while promoting his policies in cyberspace.
Hau set up a Plurk account on Friday to interact with the public and promote his policies in cyberspace. However, he allegedly blocked about 400 Plurkers who left critical comments on his page, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilors Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) and Liu Yao-ren (劉耀仁) said at a press conference at the Taipei City Council.
“Hau thought he wouldn’t hear any criticism if he just covered his ears and blocked out the negative comments against him,” Liu said.
Chuang said Hau also asked his staff to use work hours to Plurk on his behalf, rather than interacting with the public himself like other politicians do.
At a separate meeting yesterday, Hau denied blocking Plurkers who wrote negative comments about him and said the city government had to “make some adjustments” after his page was paralyzed when more than 1,000 Plurkers posted messages.
“I will continue to communicate with Taipei residents online, but in the meantime, I hope that friends in cyberspace will respect each other,” he said.
On Chuang’s page, a Plurker nicknamed “applesbig” yesterday accused Hau of blocking him after he asked Hau to pay back the health insurance debt the city owed the central government, and to take a ride on the Maokong Gondola to test the safety of the system.
Another Plurker, “neko喵,” also complained of being blocked after she challenged Hau over some of his pledges regarding his potential bid for Taipei City mayor in December elections.
“I am also blocked even though I didn’t mention anything about the Maokong Gondola or health insurance debts,” she said.
On his site on Friday, Hau said he was impressed by the fast and passionate responses from Plurkers and called on those who raised questions about the resumption of services on the Maokong Gondola to “get detailed explanations from news releases issued by the city government.”
Plurk has become a popular online platform for local politicians in Taiwan to promote their policies and communicate with the public.
Former DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) set up a Plurk account and started a “Plurk diary” to continue interacting with his supporters after losing the 2008 presidential election.
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