Police yesterday questioned a suspect about a viral photograph of a spoiled-looking egg allegedly imported from Brazil, after the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) filed a complaint.
New Taipei City Police questioned the suspect, surnamed Hsieh (謝), at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, pending charges of “tarnishing reputation” under the Criminal Code.
MOA officials on Wednesday afternoon filed a judicial complaint regarding a Facebook post. The Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Taipei Police Department found the Facebook account holder’s identity through his IP address. Hsieh, 43, resides in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊).
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
Hsieh told officers that he had made the post and insisted the “green spoiled egg” was for real, and he did not doctor the picture, investigators said.
Hsieh’s social media post on Monday last week showed a cracked open egg with its yellow yolk in a bowl tainted with green and black, and another bowl containing unidentified black liquid inside an egg shell.
Next to the two bowls was a clear plastic container with eggs. The container carried a Tai Nong Eggs Co label, the company based in Kaohsiung which has been criticized in previous weeks for mislabeling expiration dates on a batch of imported eggs.
Hsieh wrote in Mandarin: “On Sept. 18 I bought these Tai Nong eggs from Pxmart, and their expiration date is Oct. 7. May I ask, were these eggs imported?”
Hsieh also shared the Brazilian flag in his post, referring to egg imports from Brazil.
MOA officials said experts examined the photo closely, and concluded that the coloring looked “unnatural” and the photo could have been doctored.
“It is fake news aimed to damage the reputation of Taiwanese domestic egg producers and to undermine the MOA’s egg import policy designed to provide a steady supply to meet domestic demand. We remind the public not to share such disinformation,” the ministry said in a statement. “No confirmation can be made on where the egg in question had come from. We are requesting a judicial investigation to prevent people with harmful motives of spreading rumors and misinformation.”
If the photo is found to be manufactured, people sharing it could be breaching “offenses of tarnishing reputation” under the Criminal Code, and also could be contravening provisions of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), Taipei Police Department officials said.
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
STRICTER ENFORCEMENT: Taipei authorities warned against drunk cycling after a sharp rise in riding under the influence, urging greater public awareness of its illegality Taipei authorities have issued a public warning urging people not to ride bicycles after consuming alcohol, following a sharp rise in riding under the influence (DUI) cases involving bicycles. Five hundred and seven people were charged with DUI last year while riding YouBikes, personal bicycles, or other self-propelled two-wheelers — a fourfold increase from the previous year, data released by the Taipei Police Department’s Traffic Division showed. Of these, 33 cases were considered severe enough to be prosecuted under “offenses against public safety,” the data showed. Under the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例), bicycles — including YouBikes and other
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
RSS