Three women are under investigation and face likely charges for circulating rumors after their messages led to panic buying of toilet paper nationwide, while a Taipei police official has been punished for leaking information related to the home quarantine of a Taipei resident, officials said yesterday.
The three women allegedly claimed on messaging app Line that the paper pulp used to make toilet paper is also used in the production of masks, which would result in an imminent shortage, as stocks of masks have already been depleted amid a battle to contain the 2019 novel coronavirus, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said.
The messages were quickly disseminated on Line and other social media platforms, which led to a run on toilet paper and paper towels at grocery stores and supermarkets as people began hoarding the items.
Due to the panic buying and shortages in many cities, government officials refuted the rumor in a statement saying that “the ingredients for toilet paper are different from those for producing masks.”
People should not worry and there is no need for hoarding, “as the supply of materials to make toilet paper is at normal levels and there is no shortage,” the Ministry of Justice said in a statement yesterday.
The three suspects were questioned for allegedly circulating the original rumor and they face charges of contravening provisions of Article 63 of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), which stipulates penalties for “spreading rumors in a way that is sufficient to undermine public order and peace,” bureau Third Investigation Corps head Hsiao Juei-hao (蕭瑞豪) said.
The suspects are part of a home products direct-sales business group: a 69-year-old woman surnamed Liao (廖) and her two subordinates, both surnamed Chen (陳), aged 40 and 33, Hsiao said.
The trio likely aimed to benefit financially from the rumor, as their wares include toilet paper and paper towels, Hsiao added.
Meanwhile, a Taipei deputy police chief surnamed Liao (廖) received a major demerit and was transferred to another post for leaking the information of a person who was ordered into 14-day home quarantine after returning from a visit to China.
Chinese-language media reported that the deputy chief was stationed at Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) Police Precinct and that he will likely face charges, as the case has been referred to prosecutors to investigate a breach of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法).
The deputy chief was reportedly checking on a Taipei resident under home quarantine, one of Taiwan’s confirmed cases of the coronavirus, when he allegedly took photographs of the person’s file, which included their name, home address and other personal information.
He reportedly shared the information on Line with a few friends, one of whom then allegedly posted the data in other groups and on Facebook.
“We must not leak the personal information of people infected with the virus, because that will cause stigmatization and lead to confrontation in society. Then people who should be quarantined will try to hide their health situation. If many people do so, then it will seriously damage efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus,” Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said.
Separately yesterday in Kaohsiung, health officials reported that 84 people had all tested negative for the coronavirus after their 14-day home quarantine ended.
A Taiwanese businessman in his 50s on Jan. 21 returned from Wuhan, China — the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak — with a slight fever and symptoms of a respiratory ailment. As a possible infection case, health officials ordered him into a 14-day home quarantine, but the next day he defied the order and went out to socialize with friends, including eating meals and going to a Kaohsiung dance hall.
After authorities discovered his actions, the 84 people who had close contact with him that day were ordered into 14-day home quarantine and he was fined NT$300,000.
However, Kaohsiung prosecutors decided not to charge him with breaching the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), as his actions did not cause any coronavirus infections and there was insufficient evidence to prove that he knowingly attempted to spread the disease.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS