The Criminal Investigation Bureau yesterday said that it had identified the suspect behind a Facebook post that said ingesting the highly toxic chemical cyanide could be used to protect against the 2019 novel coronavirus.
The bureau received a report a day earlier that someone in the Facebook group “Taiwan & Japan” had posted potentially harmful misinformation about the virus, and later identified the suspect as a 29-year-old Taiwanese surnamed Yu (游).
The now-deleted post said that “cyanide can be used to kill the novel coronavirus and prevent disease. Chinese people, take it quickly! If you do not have [cyanide] on hand, you can grind up large quantities of apple seeds into powder, and then ingest it.”
Photo: Yao Yueh-hung, Taipei Times
The bureau said it has asked Yu, who is studying in Japan, to return to Taiwan as soon as possible.
His case would be turned over to prosecutors for further investigation, it said.
Under Taiwan’s Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法), people who disseminate rumors or false information concerning communicable diseases that result in damage to the public can be fined up to NT$3 million (US$99,582).
Commenting on the case, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) wrote on Facebook yesterday, urging people not to repost news stories that seem questionable.
“Spreading this type of deadly fake news? Do they not have a heart?” he asked.
Fake news about the coronavirus is dangerous, because given the havoc wreaked by the epidemic, people are likely to believe anything they read about it, including stories about prevention and treatment, Lin said.
He said that spreading fake news alleging that an infection could be treated with cyanide was obviously intended to harm people.
“Cyanide is highly toxic. Coming into contact with even a small amount of the compound is fatal. There is no need to even mention that it cannot cure a disease,” he said.
Lin advised people to add themselves to the Centers for Disease Control’s official Line account, which provides the latest updates on the coronavirus and dispels rumors found circulating online.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin
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