The National Security Bureau (NSB) identifies up to 30,000 pieces of false information every week, notable items of which it sends along to the National Security Council to respond, it said on Wednesday.
At a hearing of the Foreign and National Defense Committee at the legislature, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) asked NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) how the bureau handles false information.
As an example, Hsu mentioned the rumor circulating online in January that then-vice presidential candidate Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) had a secret boyfriend.
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
NSB staff and algorithms keep records of such controversial content, including the rumor about Hsiao, Tsai said.
It has collected about 1.3 million controversial posts since last year, from which it has identified 20,000 to 30,000 false posts every month, he said.
After fact-checking, it reports about 5,000 to 6,000 posts every week to the council and Executive Yuan, which then decide whether and how to respond, he added.
Pressed about the bureau’s response to such accusations, Tsai emphasized that its role is to simply collect and report, and it is the responsibility of other agencies to respond.
REPORT: Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining loitering munitions matching the AeroVironment Switchblade 300 or the Anduril Altius-600, ‘Foreign Policy’ said Taiwan is seeking US-made kamikaze drones in an apparent concession to pressure from Washington to focus on asymmetric capabilities to defeat or deter a Chinese attack, Foreign Policy said in a report on Wednesday. Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions or other devices with similar capabilities, it said, citing four sources familiar with the matter commenting on condition of anonymity. The Switchblade 300 is a tube-launched drone designed for attacking ground troops, while its larger sibling, the Switchblade 600, could be used to destroy tanks and entrenched troops. Ukraine has utilized both systems extensively in its fight against
Police officers yesterday morning apprehended the prime suspect of a triple homicide case, after raiding the suspect’s hideout in Taichung. They transported the suspect to New Taipei City for questioning and recorded his statement last night. The suspect, identified as a 24-year-old man surnamed Chang (張), is believed to have used his hands to strangle his wife, surnamed Chen (陳), 29, along with his three-year-old son from a previous marriage and his wife’s mother, 69. The three dead bodies were wrapped in blankets when they were discovered inside their apartment in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) on Saturday. Chang was holding a
Hungarian Member of Parliament Tompos Marton said he considers Taiwan to be a better alternative to China as a strategic partner. Marton, who is the vice president of the opposition Momentum Party, made the remarks in an interview with the Central News Agency on Sunday. He draped a Republic of China flag across his shoulders to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the capital city, Budapest, on Thursday last week, and openly voiced support for Taiwan on social media. He said in the interview that he wanted to remind the world that there were alternatives to China, and that “Taiwan has
A female physician at New Taipei City’s Shuang Ho Hospital was bullied and made to work for 32 consecutive hours by a senior colleague while pregnant before later having a miscarriage, an internal investigation found, the hospital said on Monday. The perpetrator has been removed from his post, the hospital said. The attending physician in the hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, identified by the pseudonym Y, earlier on Monday told reporters that she had been bullied by a male senior colleague who arranged shifts in her department. In January, shortly after she became pregnant, Y asked the department director if she could avoid overnight