Internet platform operators must remove suspected fraudulent investment advertisements within 24 hours of being notified by the police or be fined NT$120,000 for every contravention of the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Act (證券投資信託及顧問法), the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday.
The ministry said that it had recently informed police of the measure, which aims to crack down on fake advertisements on social media platforms put up by criminal groups using the names of famous people, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) founder Morris Chang’s (張忠謀) wife, Sophie Chang (張淑芬), and NVIDIA cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), to lend credibility to their scams.
The ministry on Sept. 25 drafted and approved the Regulations for the Police for Standardizing Penalties and Enforcing Article 70-1 of the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Act (警察機關處理違反證券投資信託及顧問法第70條之1案件統一裁罰基準及實施要點).
Photo: Screen grab from Facebook
Article 70-1 of the securities act states that an “internet platform provider, internet application service provider, internet access service provider, or other network communication media enterprise may not publish or broadcast any advertisement that violates either of the preceding two preceding paragraphs ... it shall, at its own initiative or within a deadline as notified by a judicial police authority, remove the advertisement, restrict browsing of it, cease broadcasting it, or take other necessary measures.”
The Criminal Investigations Bureau is required to send platform owners documented notification of contraventions, but can also send them an e-mail so that they can comply in a timely manner, the regulations state.
Upon receipt of the physical copy of the notification, platform owners have 24 hours to remove the offending ad, restrict access to it, cease broadcasting it, or take other necessary measures, the regulations state.
The government reserves the right to reduce the grace period offered to platform owners to remove the offending material based on individual cases, they say.
Platform owners must forward proof that the ads have been removed, information on who paid for and financed them to the bureau, the regulations say.
The bureau should within 12 hours via e-mail inform platform owners that it has received the information and has completed its verification process to ensure that the ads have been removed.
Every contravention of the regulations would result in a fine of NT$120,000, and platform owners would have to pay NT$600,000 for every contravention after the fifth, the regulations state.
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