A man surnamed Chiang (江) is facing charges of personal privacy violations and offenses against sexual morality (妨害風化罪) for allegedly collecting and posting images of students on a Web site called Uniform Map.
Chiang, 43, was detained for questioning yesterday by New Taipei City’s criminal investigation unit after New Taipei City Councilor Huang Shu-chun (黃淑君) filed a complaint, saying many young people asked for her help after they found unauthorized pictures of themselves on the Web site.
“They ranged from elementary-school students to senior-high schoolers. Most of them were girls,” Huang said, adding that the number of victims could be close to 1,000 students.
Photo courtesy of New Taipei Councilor Huang Shu-chun
Police said they found that Uniform Map, established by Chiang in 2013, had a big following, with at least 100,000 members across Taiwan, and that the Web site had images of boys and girls dressed in their school uniforms.
Some of the photos were allegedly “stolen,” or downloaded to be posted on social media, they said, adding that images of underage students would get passed around and circulated on other digital platforms and messaging apps without the person’s permission.
Those actions contravene laws protecting copyright, Huang said.
Some pictures also border on indecency or could be deemed sexual content, she added.
After several people filed for a judicial complaint, police tracked down Chiang, seized his computer and electronics, and confiscated his data files to prevent further leaking of personal photos, Huang said.
Police said Chiang told them he owned the Web site, but denied that he had collected indecent images or sexual content. He said he was unaware he had contravened copyright laws.
Chiang is also facing charges of breaching the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), police said.
Uniform Map also has images of students in uniform from other countries. Most photos are of young female students in short skirts.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS