New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) yesterday called on the government to set up a platform for people to report online scam advertisements.
Representatives from Google and Meta met with officials from the Financial Supervisory Commission, the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the National Communications Commission, and agreed to establish points of contact to handle reports of scam advertisements from the government, Chiu said.
However, the Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday said that such a mechanism has yet to be launched, he added.
Photo: CNA
“We cannot simply depend on the National Police Agency to tackle fraud,” he said. “Rather than having rank-and-file police officers deal with victims of online scam advertisements or scan the Internet in search of suspicious ads to report to Google or Meta, the most effective way would be to involve everyone,” he added.
The government should set up a cross-agency platform for people to report fraudulent online advertisements, Chiu said, adding that the platform should be run by the digital ministry, which regulates digital platforms.
“The ministry should tackle the sources of scam advertisements by notifying Google, Meta or other operators, and asking them to remove scam ads from their platforms within a given period,” Chiu said.
Chiu said a similar platform exists in the UK, where people can report scam advertisements by uploading hyperlinks, screenshots or other information.
This has made the faster removal of such ads possible, he said.
“In Taiwan, police can issue 6 million traffic tickets per year following reports from the public, even though there is not much material incentive for people to do so,” Chiu said.
“There is no reason we cannot remove 6 million false ads from the Internet,” he said.
“The ads could be taken down faster with a reward mechanism,” he added.
The digital ministry should also inform the public about the number of scam ads that have been removed every month, he said.
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