The Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) would assist six platforms, including Line and TikTok, to implement anti-fraud plans and publish transparency reports by the end of the year, Minister of Digital Affairs Huang Yen-nun (黃彥男) said today at a news conference to review the past year.
The ministry is overseeing the platforms Google, YouTube, Line, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok — owned by four companies — on various anti-fraud responsibilities, he said.
The ministry has been enacting the Fraud Prevention Act (詐欺犯罪危害防制條例), which came into effect in July last year, and issued four subsidiary regulations, he added.
Photo: Taipei Times
The act requires the six platforms to verify the identities of advertisers and investors, establish fraud prevention plans, regularly publish transparency reports and remove or restrict access to fraudulent advertisements within 24 hours upon notification from authorities.
The platforms submitted anti-fraud plans last month and would receive guidance from the ministry for their implementation before publishing transparency reports by December, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, TikTok has applied to appoint a legal representative in Taiwan, although it is pending interdepartmental review, including assistance from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Mainland Affairs Council, a MODA official said.
They are currently requesting supplementary documentation from TikTok, although cooperation is currently going smoothly, they added.
In other news, members of the Control Yuan applied for an independent review of online shopping platform Shopee on suspicions that it is backed by Chinese capital.
The MODA said that Shopee was subject to review by the economic ministry upon launch in Taiwan, but it trusts the economic ministry to cooperate in any further investigations.
The ministry also outlined three core policy directions: strengthening digital resilience, developing the digital economy and strengthening anti-fraud measures.
Officials summarized four key strategies in the Seventh National Information and Communication Security Development Program.
The program would enhance the cybersecurity resilience of critical infrastructure using an NT$1.4 billion (US$46.7 million) investment over the next three years, officials said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by