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.
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
ALL QUIET: The Philippine foreign secretary told senators she would not respond to questions about whether Lin Chia-lung was in the country The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday confirmed that a business delegation is visiting the Philippines, but declined to say whether Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) is part of the group, as Philippine lawmakers raised questions over Lin’s reported visit. The group is being led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-chin (黃昭欽), Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association (CIECA) chairman Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan Business Council (USTBC) vice president Lotta Danielsson, the ministry said in a statement. However, sources speaking on condition of anonymity said that Lin is leading the delegation of 70 people. Filinvest New Clark City Innovation Park
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
RSS