TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The New Power Party on Saturday criticized the government for blocking access in Taiwan to the Chinese app RedNote over fraud concerns.
While agreeing with the goal of combating online scams, the NPP argued that the Interior Ministry’s use of Article 47 of the Fraud and Crime Hazard Prevention Act, an article intended for fraud websites rather than social media platforms, risks violating the proportionality principle, per NOWNews. The party also said the government lacks a sufficient legal framework to address emerging digital issues.
The NPP said new laws are needed to deal not only with online fraud but also cyberbullying, platform responsibility, national security risks, and other challenges of the digital era.
The Interior Ministry ordered a nationwide block on RedNote, known in Chinese as Xiaohongshu (小紅書), because the platform does not maintain a presence in Taiwan and is therefore not subject to domestic regulations. The ministry said 1,706 fraud cases resulting in losses of NT$240 million (US$7.7 million) had been linked to RedNote over the past two years, and that the company has repeatedly failed to respond to police requests for cooperation, per Business Today.
The ministry added that the National Security Bureau evaluated RedNote across 15 information security categories and found the platform failed all of them. Fu Jen Catholic University Professor Yao Meng-chang (姚孟昌) supported the government’s decision, saying that when platforms cannot police themselves, the state has an obligation to intervene in the public interest, per CNA.
Mainland Affairs Council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) declined to comment, saying the issue concerns online fraud rather than cross-strait relations, per CNA.
Opposition figures questioned the government’s motives, arguing the ban was politically driven. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said that while combating fraud is important, the Democratic Progressive Party must apply consistent standards to avoid raising suspicion of ulterior motives, per Mirror Media.
Chiang suggested a one-month trial period followed by an assessment. According to public data on the government’s fraud-reporting website, reports involving Facebook far outnumber those linked to RedNote.
KMT Legislator Huang Chien-hao (黃建豪) pressed National Communications Commission Chair Chen Chung-shu (陳崇樹) to clarify whether the decision was based on fraud concerns or information security, per UDN. He noted that Telegram, despite past incidents involving money laundering and other crimes, had only individual channels blocked rather than the entire platform.
Huang said banning a platform because of its content could violate freedom of speech. Chen responded that because RedNote is required to hand over user data to the Chinese government, the security concerns are legitimate.
Former DPP Legislator Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜) said that although the public is united against fraud, taking such a hard line against RedNote may not win broad support, noting that fraud involving Line or Facebook is far more common, per SETN. She said Taiwan should have taken stronger action against Prince Holding Group, arguing the government’s handling appeared weak compared with other countries.
Kao noted that Taiwan’s major banks had reported the group 52 times over seven years, yet authorities failed to act.
