The Executive Yuan is delaying a decision to ban TikTok nationwide as government departments are examining the feasibility of such a measure, spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said yesterday at a weekly news conference.
Lo made the comment in response to a question about reports that the Cabinet is seeking to outlaw the popular Chinese app.
The short video platform owned by China-based ByteDance Co (字節跳動) has sparked national security fears in many countries.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
FBI Director Christopher Wray last month said that the app is a threat to US security.
Officials are studying the legal ramifications of a ban, and whether measures adopted by other countries have been successful, Lo said.
The Executive Yuan is not directing a policy decision, and is waiting for feasibility studies to be concluded, he said.
The Cabinet has assembled a task force to ensure that a 2020 prohibition on government offices from using Chinese social media platforms, including TikTok, is being adhered to, Lo said.
The task force is additionally to study the effects of Chinese-owned social media apps being used nationwide, he said.
The Ministry of Education has been conducting a drive to raise public awareness of the possibility that TikTok could be used by Beijing to spread disinformation and wage cognitive warfare against the country, in addition to its negative effects on children’s well-being, Lo said.
Taiwan’s ban on government workers’ use of TikTok is in line with actions taken by other countries, he added.
India is the only country to impose a nationwide ban on TikTok, although its efficacy remains unknown, Lo said.
“More discussion and data gathering is required before we can conclude that a ban would work, and to know whether other countries have achieved their intended results,” he said.
“Any prohibition or regulation that can affect the freedoms and lives of Taiwanese must be weighed carefully by the government,” he said.
When asked if a TikTok ban would be discussed at the Executive Yuan’s Boxing Day cybersecurity conference, Lo said that the event participants would discuss cybersecurity threats in general, including those posed by other Chinese platforms.
Social media users in India have been able to bypass the block with a virtual private network, or by changing the region settings on their phones, which is an issue being studied by Taiwan’s representative office in India, a person familiar with the matter said.
The government in Taipei faces a greater number of legal constraints in its regulatory powers than India does, the person said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS