TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese authorities have opened an investigation into an office opened in Taiwan by TikTok and later its parent company ByteDance Ltd. for operating in the country illegally.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Sunday (Dec. 18) stated that a Cabinet task force found on Dec. 9 that a company was suspected of engaging in "illegal business activities" in Taiwan for the Chinese short video platform TikTok, reported Liberty Times. The council stated that it immediately opened an investigation and transferred the case to the judiciary on suspicion of violating Taiwanese law.
Governments of a growing number of countries are becoming concerned about the security risks posed by TikTok because it is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance and could potentially provide personal user data to the Chinese Communist Party (CPP). Thus far, India in 2021 fully banned TikTok, Taiwan on Dec. 5 barred the app on public sector devices, and the U.S. Senate on Dec. 14 passed a bill that bans federal employees from using the platform.
According to the MAC, Article 73 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that China-based social media software companies are barred from setting up offices in Taiwan. The council has emphasized that as such, TikTok and its Chinese twin Douyin (抖音), are not allowed to establish business branches in Taiwan.
On Sunday, LTN newspaper reported that Tiktoktaiwan Co Ltd (昇洋國際生技), which had been established on March 2018, was given approval by the Department of Commerce of the Ministry of Economic Affairs to change its registered name to ByteDance Taiwan (字節跳動台灣) in November. The company is registered at Shijia Road in Taichung City's East District, its representative is Chen Chia-ching (陳嘉慶), and it has NT$12 million in registered capital.
The company's lines of business listed include food, international trade, management consulting, performing arts activities, advertising services, and manpower dispatching, as well as digital information supply services, information software services, and data processing services. Recently, job vacancies were published on the company's website, which the MAC alleges involves violations of relevant provisions of the act governing cross-strait relations.
In response to this finding, the MAC pointed out that on Dec. 9, Cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) convened a special meeting to discuss the dangers to national security posed by TikTok and invited representatives from various government agencies to attend. During the meeting, officials were instructed to proactively investigate the usage of the platform in Taiwan and transfer suspected cases of criminal offenses to the judiciary for prosecution under the law.
The MAC said in recent years, China has used TikTok and other video, audio, and video platforms to infiltrate other countries as part of its cognitive warfare operations, and there is a high risk of personal user information being collected and handed over to the Chinese government. In order to ensure information security protection, the council reiterated that the government has prohibited the public sector from using Chinese-made apps. The council also pledged that it will cooperate with the Cabinet's instructions and discuss effective security management measures with relevant competent authorities.
