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.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘LAWFUL USE’: The last time a US warship transited the Taiwan Strait was on Oct. 20 last year, and this week’s transit is the first of US President Donald Trump’s second term Two US military vessels transited the Taiwan Strait from Sunday through early yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, the first such mission since US President Donald Trump took office last month. The two vessels sailed south through the Strait, the ministry said, adding that it closely monitored nearby airspace and waters at the time and observed nothing unusual. The ministry did not name the two vessels, but the US Navy identified them as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit from