Authorities should investigate whether ByteDance Taiwan is affiliated with Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動), which would show whether they are upholding 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 Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
Article 73 of the act states that China-based social media software companies — which includes TikTok and its Chinese version, Douyin (抖音) — are prohibited from establishing branch offices in Taiwan, the council said on Thursday.
Tiktoktaiwan Co Ltd (昇洋國際生技), registered in 2019, on Nov. 2 changed its registered name to ByteDance Taiwan (字節跳動台灣), Ministry of Economic Affairs’ records show.
Photo: AP
The government’s lack of action contradicts its verbal commitment to reduce the influence of Chinese technology firms in Taiwan, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Chi-wei (邱志偉) said.
Chiu cited the example of an investigation into China-based streaming media service iQiyi (愛奇藝) that took two years before the Taiwanese representative terminated the contract.
TikTok poses a greater information and national security risk than iQiyi, Chiu said, pushing for an urgent government probe.
Taiwan Thinktank member Tung Li-wen (董立文) said the government should not allow software that poses a “great risk” to Taiwan, and phase out such software throughout Taiwan.
Tung said that enacting new legislation might require a long and complex process, but Taipei can use existing laws, such as the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法), or the Criminal Code, to begin controlling what content a platform delivers.
Association of Chinese Elite Leadership Secretary-General Wang Chih-sheng (王智盛) said TikTok’s security risk is well known, citing Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s lawsuit against TikTok for misleading consumers about its age-appropriateness and its protections for shielding US user data from access by the Chinese government.
The US Senate passed a bill on Wednesday banning federal employees from using TikTok on government devices, and Taiwan should implement similar measures, Wang said.
Even if Taiwan cannot duplicate every restriction the US has enacted against TikTok, Taipei should be able to use creative methods to “take the fight head-on” with the company, he said.
Such efforts would provide examples for the international community to follow, he added.
The most pressing issue to investigate is how the company managed to enter Taiwan despite regulations, Wang said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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