TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The government is considering amending existing laws to prevent disinformation from being disseminated by TikTok in Taiwan.
Amid concerns that TikTok could supply user data to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) on Dec. 5 banned the app from public sector devices, saying it could harm national information security.
On Tuesday (Dec. 20), Liberty Times reported that in order to prevent the CCP from using TikTok to spread disinformation and endangering national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) is weighing the feasibility of amending the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法) or the National Security Act (國家安全法).
China leverages TikTok for cognitive warfare
Taiwan's National Security Bureau (NSB) recently detected PLA propaganda uploaded to TikTok and has notified relevant ministries, including the Ministry of National Defense (MND) to monitor for the infiltration of PLA information warfare. The CCP has invested in TikTok's Chinese domestic version Douyin via the state-run TV channel CCTV, and the platform is tightly controlled by China.
In addition, the CCP actively recruits Taiwanese celebrities in an attempt to influence the perception of young people in Taiwan through TikTok and Xiaohongshu. Faced with "information security issues," "content issues," and "disinformation," India has banned TikTok outright in 2020, while the U.S. is poised to ban it from government devices, while the Australian Defence Force banned it in 2020.
Cabinet task force formed to mitigate damage from TikTok
The Cabinet has formed a special task force and invited the Ministry of Justice, MODA, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Economic Affairs, National Development Council, and MAC to discuss how to mitigate damage from TikTok. It is also discussing whether TikTok should be taken offline in Taiwan by blocking it from the country's internet.
Although it is impossible to completely prevent Taiwanese from using TikTok, officials were cited by the newspaper as saying that a ban would have a "harm mitigation" effect to a certain degree, but how to implement it requires further discussion among various ministries.
