Government agencies can only ask digital intermediate service providers to put a warning on online content if it is deemed to have contravened government regulations and they have applied for a restraining order in court, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
The commission made the comment at its weekly news conference in response to criticism of the digital intermediate service draft act, which it unveiled on Wednesday last week.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus on Tuesday said the draft act would allow government agencies to place warnings on online content without a court order.
It also criticized the NCC’s plan to spend NT$2.5 billion (US$83.9 million) to establish a specialized agency to regulate Internet messages, which it said would create an Internet army for the government to trample on freedom of speech.
NCC Deputy Chairman and spokesman Wong Po-tsung (翁柏宗) yesterday said that the proposed law would only allow government agencies to place a warning on online information if it is deemed to be a rumor or false, or contravenes mandatory or prohibited provisions of the law.
At the same time, government agencies should seek a restraining order from a district court if it wants to take down the illegal information, he said.
Article 18 of the draft act stipulates that warnings for online information should not last more than 30 days. Before placing a warning, government agencies should consult a third-party fact-checking organization, it says.
Most of the laws in Taiwan punish people for committing crimes, but few of them address the consequences of a crime, NCC Planning Department Director Wang De-wei (王德威) said.
The article authorizes government agencies to petition for a restraining order from a district court that would require intermediate service providers to remove illegal user-generated information to minimize damage to public interests, he said.
“However, the legal process of obtaining a court-issued restraining order could take some time. Under the circumstances, government agencies can temporarily put a warning on what they regard as false information before the court’s ruling,” Wang said.
A warning for online information would be similar to that posted on Facebook, which tells users that independent fact-checkers said that a certain information is false.
Currently, only the Agricultural Products Market Transaction Act (農產品市場交易法), the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法) and the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act (災害防救法) state the punishment for spreading false information, it added.
Wong rejected allegations that the specialized agency was meant to help the government censor or monitor online content, like a communist country.
Article 42 of the draft act states that the agency would be a communication platform that involves the participation of multiple stakeholders, Wong said.
Its duties would include notifying intermediate service providers to take down content following an administrative or court order, establishing self-regulatory rules for all stakeholders, and studying new technology and how it affects communication, he said.
The operation of the specialized agency would be jointly funded by government agencies, Wong said, adding that its budget would be supervised by the Legislative Yuan.
“The NCC does not have the authority to determine if certain content is illegal, nor does it have the authority to ask intermediate service providers to take down content,” he said.
“Other government agencies should make that determination based on the laws they are entrusted to enforce,” he added.
Like the EU Digital Services Act, which the European Parliament passed on Tuesday, the draft act identifies gatekeepers of the digital intermediate services market and lists their obligations, such as proper handling of disinformation, Wang said.
The draft act defines “digital intermediary service providers” as those providing Internet connection, caching and data storage services, such as YouTube or Facebook, Wang said.
It does not regulate search engines, messaging soft and the metaverse, he said.
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