The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) is considering amendments to prevent Beijing from spreading disinformation through TikTok, a source said yesterday, as prosecutors and government officials investigate alleged illegal activity by the app’s Chinese owner.
The government is mulling amending the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法) or the National Security Act (國家安全法) to prevent false information from being spread through TikTok and its Chinese version, Douyin (抖音), as it might endanger national security, a source said yesterday.
The Executive Yuan has also formed a task force to discuss how to mitigate damage caused by Douyin, the source said.
Photo: AP
The Cabinet believes that blocking the platform in Taiwan would not prevent people from using it, but could reduce risk, they said.
As Beijing continues to spread propaganda as part of its “united front” efforts, Taiwan’s lack of a competent authority overseeing the Internet leaves a “huge loophole” in terms of national security, a source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs should be that competent authority, they said, adding that laws were needed to regulate online content, as simply blocking Douyin cannot effectively prevent Beijing from infiltrating Taiwan.
The MAC in a statement on Sunday said it launched an investigation into TikTok on Dec. 9, after Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said at an interministerial meeting that the application posed a cybersecurity threat.
After the meeting, the council submitted to prosecutors information on the app’s activities, which could contravene the Criminal Code.
The disclosure of the probe came after the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister paper of the Taipei Times) on Sunday reported that Beijing-headquartered ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動), the developer of TikTok, reportedly registered a company called Tiktoktaiwan Co Ltd (昇洋國際生技) with the Ministry of Economic Affairs in March 2018.
The firm on Nov. 2 changed its registered name to ByteDance Taiwan (字節跳動台灣), economic affairs ministry records showed.
ByteDance yesterday denied setting up a subsidiary in Taiwan.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs has already listed Douyin as a product that “endangers national information security,” as it is said to transmit user data back to Beijing.
Government employees are prohibited from using the application, which is also banned on information and communication devices in the public sector.
An anonymous national security official said that China is nurturing Taiwanese influencers in a bid to influence young Taiwanese through the platform.
To counter the influence of TikTok and Douyin, European countries and the US have focused on the platform’s information security problems, and Japan has focused on issues related to the spread of false information, while India blocked its use because it says the app puts national security and children at risk, the official said.
Apart from India, no other country bans the public from using the platform.
Additional reporting by Cheng Chi-fang and CNA
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft