Taiwan “does not need to wait for the US” to confront Meta Platforms over allegations that the social media company aided Beijing in censoring speech, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said yesterday.
He made the comments during Minister of Digital Affairs Huang Yen-nun’s (黃彥男) report on a cybersecurity bill at the legislature in Taipei, a week after a whistle-blower testified before the US Senate that the company helped China silence dissidents on the platform.
The testimony from former Meta executive Sarah Wynn-Williams suggested that Meta’s collusion with Beijing extended to Taiwan and Hong Kong, Tsai said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Although the truth of the allegations has yet to be proven, the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) should ensure the community guidelines used by social media platforms are transparent and open to public scrutiny, he said.
No platform should be allowed to delete speech at whim, he added.
Huang said officials would communicate with Meta about the lack of transparency on its platforms.
However, the ministry believes it should wait for the US Congress to complete its investigation before deciding on an appropriate response, he said.
The government cannot shut down social media platforms before explaining its decision to the public, he added.
In response, Tsai told the minister: “Stop communicating.”
Unlike the US, Taiwan faces an imminent national security threat from China and cannot afford to shy from empowering its regulators or demanding social media companies to explain their moderation policies, he said.
Platforms cannot be allowed to delete speech at will or target comments that criticize China at the behest of Beijing while pretending to support freedom and democracy, Tsai said.
“Every time Meta was brought up, you said [MODA] would have coffee with their people,” he said. “That approach did not work when we were dealing with fraud, and I do not believe it will work now.”
“A US company should follow our laws when operating on our soil, the same as any other foreign company,” he added.
Huang told lawmakers that the proposed amendments to the Cyber Security Management Act (資通安全管理法) was a bid to close “unpatched loopholes” that recent cyberattacks had exposed.
The law has not been updated since its promulgation in 2019, he said, adding that the nation’s cybersecurity has increased significantly in the interim.
The bill would clarify that the Administration for Cyber Security is the agency in charge of enforcing cybersecurity, and establish a cybersecurity incident response mechanism to coordinate the efforts of central and local officials, he said.
The Administration for Cyber Security would be empowered to oversee cybersecurity measures in all offices and branches of the government, including the Presidential Office, Huang said.
Regulators would receive enhanced authority to supervise government contractors and other private entities, including the power to investigate certain cybersecurity breaches, he said.
Rules empowering the government to ban the use of dangerous devices, software and other products in government offices would be elevated into law, he added.
In addition, government personnel rules would be amended to authorize the employment of qualified cybersecurity experts, Huang said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan has activated backup communications for its northernmost territory, the remote and strategically located island of Dongyin (東引), after poor weather conditions apparently shifted the wreckage of a ship onto an undersea cable causing it to break. The vulnerability of undersea communication cables linking Taiwan with its outlying islands has been a persistent cause of concern for Taipei, whose government has on several occasions blamed Chinese ships for intentionally causing damage. Dongyin, home to about 1,500 people, sits in a strategic position at the top of the Taiwan Strait and the island has a heavy military presence. It does not have an
RSS