Minister without portfolio-designate Chang Ching-sen (張景森) yesterday announced he would be closing his Facebook account, saying that it is “not a safe space anymore” and that “people should know I am not the person television talking heads portray me to be.”
Last month, Chang criticized the land justice movement on Facebook, in remarks that proved controversial and resulted in prominent advocates calling for his removal from president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) provisional Cabinet. Chang later issued an apology over the wording of his comments, but stood by the content.
Premier-designate Lin Chuan (林全) on Friday said that he had “suggested” that Chang close his Facebook account after May 20, when the new administration takes office.
In the post Chang made yesterday, he said that he has been using the platform for five years to keep in touch with friends and network, and that he had maintained a “natural and honest communicative style that is just like I am with friends in private.”
He said that although “Facebook is supposed to be a private space,” when he became a “public figure,” his profile attracted unwanted attention from “paparazzi netizens” who “intruded like voyeurs by taking private conversations and comments out of context and without permission, distorting them to manufacture news.”
His Facebook comments had provided material for “people who are pissed off about Chang Ching-sen, the DPP [Democratic Progressive Party], Tsai, or just pissed off about the economy, the weather or everything, and need to release their emotions by bludgeoning someone,” Chang said, adding: “Facebook is no longer a safe space.”
Chang said that he could “be a phony” by “dressing up” his comments for the benefit of “prying ears” and use his profile as “a public relations bullhorn,” but “marketing” himself is not his “style,” and would “get in the way of making friends.”
The other option is to “take safety precautions” by “deleting all those people who are without loyalty to friends,” but since “people’s hearts are covered by their skins,” and he does not want to isolate himself from “different voices,” which he finds “inappropriate for a public figure,” he is to shut down his account instead.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS