Meta is facing a NT$1 million (US$33,256) fine for failing to disclose Facebook advertiser information, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday, marking the first time a business is facing penalties under amendments that came into effect last year.
The ministry in a statement said that the social media giant on two occasions breached rules requiring platforms to disclose ad content creators’ identities and sources of funding under the Fraud Crime Hazard Prevention Act (詐欺犯罪危害防制條例).
Meta is to pay NT$500,000 for each offense, it said.
Photo: AFP
The company must rectify the offending ads or be charged with additional and repeated fines, the ministry said.
The ministry made the move after deliberation with the High Prosecutors’ Office, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of the Interior and Executive Yuan Anti-Fraud Command Center, it said.
The digital ministry had consulted Meta in the writing of the law and its related regulations, it added.
Although the company expressed a willingness to comply with the rules and would later report itself as complying, officials found clear evidence that the regulations were not followed in the two cases, the digital ministry said.
Meta issued a statement saying that the company “has a responsibility to prevent fraud on our platforms and takes that responsibility seriously.”
“We will continue to work with the government and law enforcement to fight cyberfraud across platforms and enterprises,” the statement said.
The fines came a day after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) slammed the digital ministry for its slow response to complaints about fraud.
Since the promulgation of separate anti-fraud acts in February, police received 15 complaints about Internet-based fraud and did not hand the cases to the digital ministry for investigation until last month, Hung said.
One month later, the digital ministry did not appear to have done anything about the complaints, he said.
“It is laudable that something is being done [about fraud], but 90 percent of Internet-based scam messages come from Facebook,” he said.
“Just how unequal is our relationship with Meta?” Hung asked.
Minister of Digital Affairs Huang Yen-nun (黃彥男) disputed Hung’s version of events, saying that police did not inform the ministry of the alleged fraud until May 1 and that officials immediately handled the cases.
Huang told lawmakers that the digital ministry was imposing fines on Meta for only two of the ads, not due to any leniency or special consideration, but Meta’s compliance with the law in other cases.
As Facebook removed the remaining offending ads within 24 hours of being alerted by the authorities as required by law, regulators had no cause to impose penalties over the other instances, he said.
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
WARNING: People in coastal areas need to beware of heavy swells and strong winds, and those in mountainous areas should brace for heavy rain, the CWA said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued sea and land warnings for Typhoon Ragasa, forecasting that it would continue to intensify and affect the nation the most today and tomorrow. People in Hualien and Taitung counties, and mountainous areas in Yilan and Pingtung counties, should brace for damage caused by extremely heavy rain brought by the typhoon’s outer rim, as it was upgraded to a super typhoon yesterday morning, the CWA said. As of 5:30pm yesterday, the storm’s center was about 630km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving northwest at 21kph, and its maximum wind speed had reached
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
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