Freedom of speech in the virtual world and in giant social media platforms in the digital era is in need of further discussions, experts said at a forum held in Taipei on Friday.
Freedom of speech should not be the knee-jerk worry that stops governments from taking actions to curb information manipulation, National Taiwan University Graduate Institute of Journalism director Hung Chen-ling (洪貞玲) said.
She made the comment when asked about how Taiwan should respond to Chinese platforms such as TikTok, which are popular among young Taiwanese, but have been found to operate in China’s interests by groups that combat disinformation such as Taiwan AI Labs and Doublethink Lab.
While banning them might incur criticisms of freedom of speech infringement, before using this to justify not doing so, “we first have to get to the bottom of how the contemporary informational environment operates,” Hung said.
“The freedom of speech question is no longer simply about protecting it in order to fight an authoritarian government like before. What we are facing in our era is a situation where our freedom of speech is directed by and is at the mercy of giant platforms and business interests,” she said.
“When a democracy is constantly threatened by a neighboring authoritarian country through information manipulation [on digital platforms], the talk of freedom of speech needs to be done in a new light to see how a democracy’s freedom of speech and national security can be protected,” Hung said.
She said the government should have the courage to do more, citing the US’ bill as an example, which is forcing ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, to divest its US assets or face a total ban.
The ultimate goal of freedom of speech is to protect human rights, Taiwan AI Labs content executive officer Hwang Chao-hwei (黃兆徽) said.
“In a virtual world, we have to ask whether this human is real or fake. Fake humans should not be granted rights,” Hwang said.
When one person can control and manipulate hundreds of accounts to sway online discussions, “it is also against the spirit of freedom of speech,” she said.
Hwang said she does not support using laws to regulate content, but that what is needed is structural regulation; meaning, transparency must be demanded “in the platforms’ money flow, algorithms, and where their adverts come from.”
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS