Professional Technology Temple (PTT), the nation’s largest online bulletin board system, announced over the weekend that it would stop reviewing new user applications to the system, because of a problem that the system administrator referred to as a “loose registration process.”
Made late on Friday night, the announcement added that halting registrations would not affect those whose applications were under review.
Another announcement would be made when the bulletin board was once again accepting user applications, the system administrator said.
Netizens speculated about what the reasons for the move were.
Some said the suspension was intended to prevent political candidates from using the bulletin board system to spread their agendas for the nine-in-one elections in November.
Others said it had to do with Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠), director-general of the Osaka branch of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, having committed suicide on Friday, allegedly because of harsh criticism over how the branch handled tourists stranded in Osaka following Typhoon Jebi.
Those accusing PTT articles of spreading fake news were themselves spreading fake news, PTT founder Ethan Du (杜奕瑾) said on Facebook on Saturday.
The Chinese media were the first to report that Beijing sent 15 tour buses to Kansai International Airport, he said, adding that the Chinese-language Apple Daily and Sanlih TV News picked up the story of the alleged event, highlighting it with sensationalized headlines.
Netizens exposed the report as fake news within two hours, with the Apple Daily’s follow-up story being forwarded to the PTT forum on Japan travel, Du said.
Forum user “GuRuGuRu” criticized the report based on personal experience, he added.
“The media then claimed that the PTT forum discussion was the source of the fake news. Consequently, we took the report down the day it was published,” Du said, adding that the PTT users who had actually exposed the fake news had been condemned as its perpetrators.
“I am more curious as to why this fake news persists without anyone coming forward to update or revise it,” Du said. “Is it because they want people to reread the report and blame the PTT system all over again?”
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai