In 2020, then-US president Donald Trump said that, for national security reasons, the TikTok social media platform must be shut down or sold by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Some members of the US Congress proposed a complete ban on TikTok in the US.
In the same year, India completely banned TikTok, citing risks to national security and privacy.
Immediately after the presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan on Jan. 13, rumors about vote rigging started spreading on TikTok. Anyone who believed such rubbish clearly does not realize that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party run some regions. Why would the election commissions in such municipalities or counties — or even administrative regions within them — rig the vote in favor of the Democratic Progressive Party?
As the saying goes, “rumors stop at the ears of the wise,” but because there are so few wise people, “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) infiltration and theft of secrets in Taiwan are no less than in the US. Just look at how many spies have stolen military secrets for the CCP. The US and other democratic countries are already well aware that TikTok is corroding their citizens’ spirits and democratic values, especially the souls of young people.
The “clear and present danger” standard for censorship of free speech, as established by then-US Supreme Court associate justice Oliver Holmes in 1919, faces new challenges. There were no televisions or mobile phones in 1919, let alone the brainwashing, pollution and penetration of TikTok. Moreover, there are exceptions to freedom of speech, such as incitement, false statements, obscenity, child pornography and intimidation.
The US was slow to discover the harm that TikTok posed to its data security and national security, despite it having been a clear and present danger for a long time.
China is a potential and existing enemy of Taiwan. TikTok’s role in spreading disinformation and rumors is an open secret. The damage it does to Taiwan’s democratic values and the risk it poses of leaking personal information have long been a clear and present danger.
Furthermore, TikTok could be restricted just on the grounds of making false statements.
As TikTok does not have a branch company in Taiwan, the authorities here cannot directly control and restrict it, but it cannot be allowed to spread rumors at will and behave as a legal spy.
Apart from banning the use of TikTok in the public sector, the government should follow the precedent of other countries and completely ban the app.
This is no longer an issue of freedom of speech, but one that affects personal information, the public interest, democratic values and national security.
Provisions of Article 23 of the Constitution say that such issues are subject to legal redress. The only problem is that there are many CCP fellow travelers and spies across Taiwan, including in the Legislative Yuan.
Legislative or policy restrictions on the use of TikTok would lure the snake out of its hole so that the public can see the true faces of these people and parties.
If no action is taken, the situation will be “if TikTok is not shut down, Taiwan will be shut down by TikTok.”
Chuang Sheng-rong is a lawyer.
Translated by Julian Clegg
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS