Internet platform operators must remove suspected fraudulent investment advertisements within 24 hours of being notified by the police or be fined NT$120,000 for every contravention of the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Act (證券投資信託及顧問法), the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday.
The ministry said that it had recently informed police of the measure, which aims to crack down on fake advertisements on social media platforms put up by criminal groups using the names of famous people, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) founder Morris Chang’s (張忠謀) wife, Sophie Chang (張淑芬), and NVIDIA cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), to lend credibility to their scams.
The ministry on Sept. 25 drafted and approved the Regulations for the Police for Standardizing Penalties and Enforcing Article 70-1 of the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Act (警察機關處理違反證券投資信託及顧問法第70條之1案件統一裁罰基準及實施要點).
Photo: Screen grab from Facebook
Article 70-1 of the securities act states that an “internet platform provider, internet application service provider, internet access service provider, or other network communication media enterprise may not publish or broadcast any advertisement that violates either of the preceding two preceding paragraphs ... it shall, at its own initiative or within a deadline as notified by a judicial police authority, remove the advertisement, restrict browsing of it, cease broadcasting it, or take other necessary measures.”
The Criminal Investigations Bureau is required to send platform owners documented notification of contraventions, but can also send them an e-mail so that they can comply in a timely manner, the regulations state.
Upon receipt of the physical copy of the notification, platform owners have 24 hours to remove the offending ad, restrict access to it, cease broadcasting it, or take other necessary measures, the regulations state.
The government reserves the right to reduce the grace period offered to platform owners to remove the offending material based on individual cases, they say.
Platform owners must forward proof that the ads have been removed, information on who paid for and financed them to the bureau, the regulations say.
The bureau should within 12 hours via e-mail inform platform owners that it has received the information and has completed its verification process to ensure that the ads have been removed.
Every contravention of the regulations would result in a fine of NT$120,000, and platform owners would have to pay NT$600,000 for every contravention after the fifth, the regulations state.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS