The unilateral cancelation by the social networking Web site Facebook of an online petition protesting against the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China’s (ROC) handling of donations for Japanese earthquake victims has sparked accusations of “political manipulation” among Internet users.
“I feel like someone’s keeping an eye on me, I feel afraid and I feel angry at the same time,” netizen Subing (酥餅), who created the online petition with another netizen, Miawko (妙子), on Facebook, wrote on his personal blog.
He was speaking about Facebook’s unilateral disabling of the petition page — which attracted support from more than 30,000 Facebook members within days — on Tuesday.
According to the Red Cross Society of the ROC’s latest figures released on Monday, it has received more than NT$1.8 billion (US$62 million), but so far has only transferred about NT$400 million to the Japanese Red Cross Society.
The organization said it was still awaiting its Japanese counterpart’s plans for the remaining funds.
However, the delay has caused anger among the public and triggered online protests such as the one that Subing and Miawko launched. Many have also asked for a refund of their donations.
In a message to Subing, Facebook said the page was removed because “this Event appears to be an unsolicited commercial communication [spam] and has been deleted via technical measures.” The removal of the page raised suspicions among Internet users.
When Subing and Miawko opened several other petition pages on Facebook with titles bearing the name “Red Cross Society of the ROC” on Tuesday, all were also removed.
“This is too much. Are we under martial law again? Will we all be arrested?” Internet user Pei-fang (佩芳) wrote in a message on Subing’s blog.
Others suspected that cacaFly, Facebook’s advertising representative in Taiwan, had intervened for political reasons.
“I don’t trust Facebook — look who is representing Facebook in Taiwan. They could suppress freedom of speech through technical tricks,” Internet user Spieler said in a message on Subing’s blog.
CacaFly founder and chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) helped President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) manage his Facebook page before becoming Facebook’s advertising representative in Taiwan. Ma and Red Cross Society of the ROC president C.V. Chen (陳長文) also have a close personal relationship.
“I think we should complain to Facebook’s headquarters, because Facebook’s representative in Taiwan could use keyword filtering to remove pages unfriendly to the Red Cross,” netizen pfge said on Miawko’s blog.
Chiu rebutted the accusations by telephone.
“Basically, we’re only Facebook’s advertising representative in Taiwan. We only take care of advertising on Facebook in Taiwan,” Chiu said. “[Facebook’s] operation is handled by Facebook headquarters in the US and has nothing to do with us.”
After several failed attempts, Subing created a “group” page — instead of an “event page” — on Facebook protesting against the Red Cross Society of the ROC late on Tuesday.
The new page remained online at press time.
ONE LAST TALK: While Xi said that Taiwan was a ‘red line,’ Biden, in what is likely his last meeting with Xi as president, called for an end to China’s military activity around Taiwan China’s military intimidation and economic coercion against Taiwan are the main causes of tensions that are destabilizing peace in the Taiwan Strait, Taipei said yesterday while thanking US President Joe Biden for expressing Washington’s firm stance of maintaining peace and stability in the region. Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met on Saturday for their third meeting and their first talks in seven months on the sidelines of the APEC forum in Lima, Peru. It was likely Biden’s last meeting as president with Xi. During their conversation, Biden reiterated the US’ opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” from either
Taiwan would participate in the 2026 APEC summit to be hosted by China after Beijing promised it would ensure the personal safety of attendees, Taiwanese national security sources said yesterday. The APEC Leaders’ Machu Picchu Declaration announced yesterday said that China would host the APEC summit in 2026. Beijing proposed hosting the summit shortly before this year’s gathering began on Friday, a national security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Many APEC members expressed concerns about China hosting the event and said that prior communication over the decision was insufficient, the official said. Taiwan brought up concerns about legal “guidelines” China announced in
SUPPORT: Arms sales to NATO Plus countries such as Japan, South Korea and Israel only have to be approved by the US Congress if they exceed US$25m The US should amend a law to add Taiwan to the list of “NATO Plus” allies and streamline future arms sales, a US commission said on Tuesday in its annual report to the US Congress. The recommendation was made in the annual report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), which contained chapters on US-China economic and trade ties, security relations, and Taiwan and Hong Kong. In the chapter on Taiwan, the commission urged the US Congress to “amend the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 to include Taiwan on the list of ‘NATO Plus’ recipients,” referring to
Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) said she would tender her resignation following criticism of her handling of alleged bullying by Ministry of Labor Workforce Development Agency branch director Hsieh Yi-jung (謝宜容) resulting in the death of an employee. The ministry yesterday gave Hsieh two demerits and said she is subject to review by the Disciplinary Court. The severest possible punishment would be her removal from office and being barred from government jobs indefinitely. Workforce Development Agency Director-General Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) also received a major demerit and was transferred to another position. Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) issued a formal apology
RSS