National Communications Commission (NCC) Chairman Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥) yesterday told lawmakers that his one-hour meeting with US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brenden Carr on Wednesday afternoon did not touch on the topic of the Chinese video platform TikTok.
Carr has suggested that the US government ban the use of Tiktok, citing data security risks.
“Whether TikTok should be banned is within the authority of the US government. The situation in Taiwan and the US differs, so we did not touch on this particular issue,” Chen told Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷).
Photo courtesy of the National Communications Commission
Carr is the highest-level US official to visit the NCC since its founding in 2006, marking a major step forward in Taiwan-US relations, Chen said at the meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee.
However, as both the NCC and the FCC are collegial bodies — in which decisions are made by members reaching a consensus — any policy should be stipulated collectively by the commissioners, he said.
“Carr specializes in telecommunications and cybersecurity issues, and we arranged for NCC commissioners with relevant expertise to meet with him as well,” he said.
The NCC also shared with Carr its experience in supervising broadcast media, the commission said in a statement, adding that they exchanged views on issues related to spectrum management, satellite communications and data management.
Separately, Chen told Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) that the NCC would strive to decide on two telecom mergers within three months in view of mounting consumer complaints over telecom services.
The applications for mergers between Far EasTone Telecommunications and Asia-Pacific Telecom (APT), and between Taiwan Mobile and Taiwan Star were filed in February and March respectively.
The commission has held two separate hearings for the mergers, but it has yet to issue final decisions.
Because of the proposed mergers, APT and Taiwan Star — which would cease to exist after the mergers — have stopped investing in infrastructure, Lin said.
“The less they invest, the poorer their telecom services become. However, subscribers to APT and Taiwan Star are afraid they would be penalized if they break their contracts,” Lin said. “We have therefore seen rising complaints from customers of the two telecoms.”
Taiwan Star has 2.8 million subscribers, which accounts for only one-10th of overall telecom service subscribers nationwide, but the number of complaints filed by its subscribers accounted for one-third of all telecom complaints, Lin said.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
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