Telecoms and Internet service providers (ISPs) that fail to comply with government regulations to block broadcasts from illegal over-the-top (OTT) service operators from China could face a fine of up to NT$5 million (US$1.69 million), according to a draft Internet audiovisual service management act passed by the National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday.
Details of the draft act are scheduled to be announced next week after the wording of its articles is reviewed by NCC commissioners, it said, adding that the act would be subject to a 60-day public review period afterward.
Regarding Chinese Internet audiovisual service operators that operate in Taiwan illegally without securing permission in accordance with the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the draft act states that Taiwanese telecoms and ISPs should not offer them telecommunication service or equipment, data center services, content delivery network services or cloud services, the commission said.
Photo courtesy of a reader
They should also comply with government regulations to block the broadcast of Chinese operators’ content in the nation, it added.
Industry observers said that the draft act specifically targets Chinese OTT operators iQiyi.com (愛奇藝) and Tencent Video (騰訊視頻), which the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) had ruled as illegal audiovisual service operators based on the act regulating cross-strait affairs.
Although operating illegally in Taiwan, iQiyi has about 6 million subscribers across the nation, they said.
The nation’s ISPs and other relevant service providers must not help OTT operators transmit content so long as the MAC deems them as contravening the cross-strait act, NCC spokesperson Hsiao Chi-hung (蕭祈宏) said.
Those assisting them in doing so could face a fine of NT$500,000 to NT$5 million, he said.
Meanwhile, the draft act would require OTT operators with large-scale operations or significant market influence to register with the government, which would make public the names of the operators, the commission said.
Operators that fail to register with the government after their names are publicized would be fined between NT$100,000 and NT$1 million, it added.
In addition, OTT operators that have registered with the government would be obligated to regularly report key business information to the NCC, from the number of subscribers they have to their sales revenue, the commission said.
They must join or form an OTT service association and follow the ethical guidelines set by the association, it added.
“The OTT operators must annually disclose the percentages of local content on their platforms that are produced by themselves or through partnerships with local content providers. The Ministry of Culture would determine the subsidies and other incentives available to them based on the disclosed percentages,” the commission said.
The US Department of State yesterday criticized Beijing over its misrepresentation of the US’ “one China” policy in the latest diplomatic salvo between the two countries over a bid by Taiwan to regain its observer status at the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy,” Department of State spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter. “The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s ‘one China principle’ — we remain committed to our longstanding, bipartisan one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, Three Joint Communiques, and
FATES LINKED: The US president said that sanctions on Russia over Ukraine must exact a ‘long-term price,’ because otherwise ‘what signal does that send to China?’ US President Joe Biden yesterday vowed that US forces would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack in his strongest statement to date on the issue. Beijing is already “flirting with danger,” Biden said following talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, in which the pair agreed to monitor Chinese naval activity and joint Chinese-Russian exercises. Asked if Washington was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, he replied: “Yes.” “That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said. “We agreed with the ‘one China’ policy, we signed on to it ... but the idea that it can be
‘TOO RESTRICTIVE’: Ending US sales of weapons that do not fall under the category of ‘asymmetric’ would hamper Taiwan’s defense against China, two business groups said Taiwan’s weapons procurement decisions are made based on its needs, and are not influenced by individual arms dealers, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday after two US business groups questioned a US official’s comment on arms sales to Taiwan. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Regional Security Mira Resnick told the business groups via video link on Saturday that Washington would adjust the types of weapons sold to Taiwan and end “most arms sales to Taiwan that do not fall under the category of ‘asymmetric.’” The American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan and the US-Taiwan Business Council on Monday
Local COVID-19 cases are expected to continue rising in the upcoming week, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported a record-high 85,310 new domestic cases and 41 deaths. Daily case numbers had remained in the 60,000s for the past six days before surging about 30 percent yesterday, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said the number of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests conducted on Tuesday also marked a record-high of 112,915, with a
RSS