A bill to tighten scrutiny on TikTok has been proposed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺) after an altered video of party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) was spread via the platform.
The video was edited footage of Ker speaking at a news conference, where the audio and subtitles were changed to him saying: “Here is Ker Chien-ming telling you, Taiwan will be left in the darkness if it remains in the hands of the DPP.”
The subtitles were in simplified Chinese, just as in a deepfake video of DPP Legislator Wang Yi-chuan (王義川).
Photo: Reuters
Ker last night issued a statement saying that the video is fake.
He and Wang yesterday filed a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Bureau and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, accusing disseminators on TikTok of defamation and privacy offenses, and the dissemination of false images.
Investigators accepted Ker’s case and said they would look into the origins of the video, National Police Agency Director-General Chang Jung-hsin (張榮興) said.
Photo: Chen Tsai-ling, Taipei Times
At a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said police suspect the video could have originated abroad.
The proposed draft amendments to the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) stipulate that digital platforms such as TikTok either be supervised in accordance with local regulations or be banned from the local market.
Lin said the proposal has garnered support from multiple legislators and would soon be submitted to the legislature’s committees for review.
“We would demand that TikTok leave Taiwan if it continues to support scams and ‘united front’ activities,” Lin said, adding that the bill was formulated to safeguard democracy and national security in line with the latest regulatory development in Western countries.
According to the bill, TikTok has caused concerns over infringements of national security, personal privacy and democratic politics due to its questionable algorithm and operational mechanism.
If a digital platform such as TikTok has been judged to have such problems, it should abide by the government’s instructions to set up an operating entity and database within the territory of the Republic of China, and come under local jurisdiction and supervision by the cybersecurity management systems, it says.
Lin said China’s cognitive warfare continues to develop, to the extent that disinformation in the form of deepfakes is published on TikTok and other social media platforms, with influencers and public relations companies commissioned to disseminate it.
She also cited the US Court of Appeals as saying that tightened control over TikTok is no more than a countermeasure against external interference and does not contradict the freedom of speech protected by the US Constitution, as China poses a national security threat.
DPP Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) yesterday said that fake videos of politicians and political commentators have become rampant, although most of them were roughly made and can be easily seen through.
“I have been a victim of deepfakes, too,” he said.
Although refined deepfake videos have yet to be launched, they could be released at critical moments, Shen said, calling on the public not to forward such videos.
People should promptly report fake videos to the authorities and, more importantly, refrain from pointing out its errors in case the creators of fake videos use the advice to improve their technology and make it harder to detect fakes next time, he added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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