Following an online threat earlier this week to kill President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) two daughters, police yesterday investigated another Internet threat that called for the assassination of the president.
The second online threat appeared on Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) Plurk account on Friday and was posted by a plurk user nicknamed “super_fans.”
The user “super_fans” left messages on Hau’s Plurk page at about 11am on Friday, calling on “people with lofty ideas” to kill Ma, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶).
“I call on people with lofty ideas around the world to kill Ma Ying-jeou the American,” the Plurker said, adding that such a call should be protected as freedom of expression.
According to the profile information provided by “super_fans,” he is a 49-year-old male.
Plurk.com is a popular online social networking service.
Plurker “super_fans” also cited examples of how people who threatened to assassinate former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) were found not guilty in court to support his argument that making such a call comes under freedom of expression.
He was referring to a case in 2006 in which an army honor guard named Chu Chao-kang (屈肇康) posted a message in an Internet chatroom saying that he wanted to harm Chen. He was later detained by the military, but prosecutors in Pingtung released him, saying he should not be found guilty for posting personal opinions online.
Taipei City Government Spokesman Chao Hsin-ping (趙心屏) said the city government informed the Presidential Office about the online threat on Friday night. Taipei City’s Police Department was looking into the identity of “super_fans,” she said.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said the Presidential Office would handle the issue according to the law and urged online users to express their opinions rationally.
Hau also posted a message on his own Plurk account condemning “super_fans.”
“Some recent remarks by Plurkers have gone beyond the boundary of ‘mutual respect,’” Hau said in the message. “Plurkers may have different views on political issues, and may disagree and debate with each other, these are all normal in a democracy. However, attacks, violence or abuse will not be tolerated.”
Other Plurkers reacted differently to the incident, with many saying Internet users should refrain from using such extreme language, while others argued that it was a freedom of speech issue.
On Thursday, the man who posted an online message threatening to kill Ma’s daughters — Lesley Ma (馬唯中) and Kelly Ma (馬元中) — was released on NT$50,000 bail after police questioned him for more than one hour.
The man, surnamed Chen, told police during questioning that he had made the threat because he was dissatisfied with the state of affairs in Taiwan.
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
RSS