Two twin sisters yesterday made a tearful complaint that a short video in which they voluntarily appeared to help their role model, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), with his re-election bid was altered on the Internet and portrayed them as brothel girls.
The twins — Chen Pei-yu (陳珮瑜) and Chen Pei-han (陳珮涵) — who graduated from college this year, said in a press conference held by Hu’s camp last week that they came from Taipei to help Hu’s campaign and that the video, made with friends, was intended to encourage young people to vote for Hu.
In the video, which is available on Hu’s campaign Web site, the twins, accompanied by Hu and other girls, are seen dancing and singing.
The pair claims a version of the clip available on YouTube was altered and portrayed the young women as working as hostesses at a well-known nightclub in Taichung.
In the altered version, footage of the twins is played alongside video of the club and hostesses, with voiceovers claiming the women offer sex services to customers there.
“We are thoroughly humiliated,” the twins said. “Politics are horrible.”
Tang Kuo-tai (唐國泰), a spokesman for Hu’s campaign team, said whoever produced the adulterated version of the video was “evil,” adding that Hu’s campaign office could ask prosecutors to investigate.
Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Wu Tso-yan (吳祚延) also said the altered film on YouTube was humiliating and that prosecutors would look into the matter.
Democratic Progressive Party mayoral candidate Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said that while Hu’s camp had initially claimed the twins were volunteers, it was now known that the pair worked for his campaign part-time.
Su said he wondered whether Hu’s camp may not have created the entire incident to attract publicity.
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