Political disinformation is expected to increase significantly seven to three days before the Jan. 13 elections, so monitoring and investigations would be conducted 24 hours a day, prosecutors said yesterday.
The monitoring and investigations would be conducted by the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau, they said, adding that those involved in election interference would be promptly dealt with according to the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法).
Prosecutors said political disinformation can easily mislead people, and if false information is being spread ahead of the vote, it would seriously affect the fairness of the elections.
Photo: Reuters
Some of the disinformation spreading at the moment was circulating a few years ago, but has been re-edited and shared again on social media, prosecutors said, adding that it could have been posted by hostile foreign forces to “test the waters” and see how law enforcement authorities react.
To prevent hostile foreign forces from spreading disinformation that would interfere in the elections, the Investigation Bureau and the Criminal Investigation Bureau plan to launch an around-the-clock monitoring mechanism to detect election-related disinformation online in the last few days before the elections, they said.
If election-related disinformation is detected, it would immediately be investigated and reported to the prosecutors’ office. Cases related to the legislative elections would be handled by local prosecutors’ offices, while those related to the presidential election would be handled by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, they said.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is investigating two cases at the moment: one involves a list of names posted on social media claiming that thousands of Taiwanese have been wiretapped by intelligence agencies.
The other case involves an audio file that claimed to be a recording of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) revealing secrets about Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Vice President William Lai’s (賴清德) last visit to the US, prosecutors said.
The two cases used different methods to present the false information, but are both aimed at creating confusion by passing off the false information as genuine, they said.
Regarding the wiretapping claim, a prosecutor said their investigation suggests it came from a foreign source using a virtual private network to hide their location.
The Investigation Bureau’s Anti-Money Laundering Division and the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Technological Crime Prevention Center are looking into cryptocurrency and other suspicious money flows to clarify whether there are local collaborators assisting those involved, they added.
As for the “Ko” case, some local media outlets on Aug. 16 received an e-mail with an audio file, claiming to be from an internal meeting. In the recording a man who sounded like Ko said that people were offered NT$800 (US$25.50) to attend events during Lai’s visit to the US, as well as other false information.
Ko’s campaign office reported it to the Investigation Bureau’s Taipei City Field Office.
The office used Reality Defender’s platform to examine the audio file and found that it was generated using artificial intelligence (AI), the prosecutor said.
The source is still being tracked, and the possibility of it being from an “external force” has not been ruled out, they said.
Taipei District Chief Prosecutor Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) said that the elections are facing serious challenges due to rapidly spreading disinformation and foreign interference, and as identifying disinformation is becoming more difficult due to AI, people should not casually share controversial messages.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office urged people to report suspected election interference, adding that the highest reward can be up to NT$20 million.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS