The Cabinet supports investigating a deepfake video of a legislative candidate spread online as an attempt at election interference, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) on Tuesday last week said he was a victim of a deepfake video being circulated online that featured his likeness in a sex act, and reported the incident to the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau.
He said the video was part of a Chinese attempt to influence Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections, in which he is seeking re-election.
Photo: Taipei Times file
The bureau on Monday said it would not release the results of its initial review of the video, as it does not disclose information on ongoing investigations.
During an extraordinary session at the Legislative Yuan yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip William Tseng (曾銘宗) asked when the inspection results would be published.
The Executive Yuan hopes that investigators would find out the truth about the video as soon as possible, Chen said, adding that the Cabinet respects judicial independence.
Tseng said the government would be intervening in the elections if it did not publish the results of an investigation, an assertion Chen said he disagreed with, as investigations should be discreet.
KMT Legislator Lee De-wei (李德維) called for the results to be published.
“How could the case be proved to be an act of election intervention by China, as claimed by DPP presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德), if the results are not published?” Lee said.
Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) and Prosecutor-General Hsing Tai-chao (邢泰釗) have asked the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office to “clarify, remove or trace the source” when disinformation emerges, he said.
Lo yesterday said the case was a new model for crimes carried out delicately, adding that “we must not let China’s cyberarmy have its way” in interfering in the elections.
He asked national security agencies to investigate election interference, which might involve China’s state-run media, pro-unification media and politicians from the pan-blue camp.
Additional reporting by Weng Yu-huang
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS