Investigators have questioned a software engineer over allegations that he is responsible for a social media post containing misinformation targeting Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
The Executive Yuan yesterday issued a statement explaining the source of a video used in the Facebook post.
The software engineer, a 47-year-old man surnamed Chan (詹), wrote in the post that Su threw a pen after signing a guest book at what Chan claimed was the funeral of railway police officer Lee Cheng-han (李承翰), who was on Wednesday last week fatally stabbed while responding to a disturbance on a train.
Photo: Chiu Chun-fu, Taipei Times
Chan’s post was spread by supporters of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), causing a furor, the Cabinet said.
Chan, who on Facebook describes himself as “a Han Kuo-yu supporter who cannot be friends with those who ‘walk different paths,’” on Monday reportedly told Criminal Investigation Bureau officials that he “deeply regretted” making the post.
The video in Chan’s post was from a funeral for the mother of one of Su’s friends in Pingtung County, the Cabinet said.
Su said that he threw the pen out of regret and frustration due to the death of his friend’s mother.
Throwing pens at funerals after signing the guest book was a common practice in his hometown when he was young, Su said, adding that the gesture symbolizes hope that “such a regretful thing [the death of someone close] would not happen again.”
Investigators on Monday said that they traced the source of the video to an assistant at a funeral home, who had filmed Su during the ceremony and uploaded the video to Facebook, where it spread.
After coming across the video, Chan allegedly shared it, saying: “This is the funeral of a fallen officer. If you do not want to be there, do not go. What are you throwing things for?”
Investigators did not say whether they believed that Chan had mistaken the context of the video, or whether they believed his post was intentionally misleading.
However, Chan’s post was quickly shared by many people, misleading those who saw it and causing an uproar, they said.
The matter has been transferred to the New Taipei City Police Department, which could file a formal complaint with prosecutors over a contravention of Article 63-5 of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), the investigators said, adding that if found guilty, Chan could face detention of up to three days and up to NT$30,000 in fines.
Separately yesterday, the Investigation Bureau said that Yan Cheng-yi (顏正義) — who was deputy director of the Kaohsiung branch of the bureau — has been demoted to a nonsupervisory role after it was found that he had shared Chan’s post.
Additional reporting by Chen Yu-fu and CNA
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