The Executive Yuan is delaying a decision to ban TikTok nationwide as government departments are examining the feasibility of such a measure, spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said yesterday at a weekly news conference.
Lo made the comment in response to a question about reports that the Cabinet is seeking to outlaw the popular Chinese app.
The short video platform owned by China-based ByteDance Co (字節跳動) has sparked national security fears in many countries.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
FBI Director Christopher Wray last month said that the app is a threat to US security.
Officials are studying the legal ramifications of a ban, and whether measures adopted by other countries have been successful, Lo said.
The Executive Yuan is not directing a policy decision, and is waiting for feasibility studies to be concluded, he said.
The Cabinet has assembled a task force to ensure that a 2020 prohibition on government offices from using Chinese social media platforms, including TikTok, is being adhered to, Lo said.
The task force is additionally to study the effects of Chinese-owned social media apps being used nationwide, he said.
The Ministry of Education has been conducting a drive to raise public awareness of the possibility that TikTok could be used by Beijing to spread disinformation and wage cognitive warfare against the country, in addition to its negative effects on children’s well-being, Lo said.
Taiwan’s ban on government workers’ use of TikTok is in line with actions taken by other countries, he added.
India is the only country to impose a nationwide ban on TikTok, although its efficacy remains unknown, Lo said.
“More discussion and data gathering is required before we can conclude that a ban would work, and to know whether other countries have achieved their intended results,” he said.
“Any prohibition or regulation that can affect the freedoms and lives of Taiwanese must be weighed carefully by the government,” he said.
When asked if a TikTok ban would be discussed at the Executive Yuan’s Boxing Day cybersecurity conference, Lo said that the event participants would discuss cybersecurity threats in general, including those posed by other Chinese platforms.
Social media users in India have been able to bypass the block with a virtual private network, or by changing the region settings on their phones, which is an issue being studied by Taiwan’s representative office in India, a person familiar with the matter said.
The government in Taipei faces a greater number of legal constraints in its regulatory powers than India does, the person said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to