The Mainland Affairs Council has reached out to temples across Taiwan to promote awareness of Chinese misinformation campaigns, after national security agencies reported a “high occurrence” of election disinformation being spread among the religious community, a senior government official said.
The Executive Yuan has established a special task force on preventing the spread of false news and disinformation ahead of next year’s presidential election, headed by Executive Yuan member Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) and spokesman Lin Tzu-lun (林子倫), the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
China has been building a network within Taiwan’s religious community by treating Taiwanese temple members visiting China with food, board and other amenities, the source said.
Photo: Tsai Chang-sheng, Taipei Times
China is known to spread disinformation among networks in Taiwan, especially during election season, the official said.
On Sunday last week at an event in Hsinchu City, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) urged temple organizations and members to be aware that misleading or false information could be circulating through their ranks, and they should verify information before spreading it.
The government cannot limit speech in a way that would go against the spirit of democracy, but with the help of Taiwanese, the nation can do its best to prevent social instability brought about by misinformation and false news, Tsai said.
Some of the misinformation is being spread through the efforts of hostile foreign forces and domestic organizations, and some of that disinformation has distinct political motives, the official said.
They said the Executive Yuan’s efforts would focus on recognizing, exposing and suppressing false news, and identifying those spreading such information.
The task force is to respond to false news and provide factual clarification within four hours of it being discovered, they said.
The task force’s responses should not only be issued as news releases, but also on multiple platforms, including online with short videos, the official said.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau and the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau are using technology such as artificial intelligence software to identify false news, the government said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
RSS