Will TikTok Be Banned in Taiwan Following the US?

Taiwan Authorities Investigate TikTok for Illegal Operations Allegations

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] As the U.S. government is pushing to ban the use of China's TikTok within its borders, Taiwanese authorities are also investigating TikTok on suspicions of illegal operations. This is interpreted as an intention to completely block TikTok's influence, which is expanding its user base in Taiwan following Facebook and Instagram.

According to Liberty Times and others on the 19th, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the agency responsible for China-related matters, issued a statement late yesterday afternoon, announcing that it is investigating suspicious circumstances suggesting that a subsidiary of ByteDance, TikTok's operator, is conducting illegal commercial activities in Taiwan.

They added that this violates provisions of the "Cross-Strait People's Relations Ordinance," which prohibits Taiwanese subsidiaries from operating Chinese online social media platform-related businesses in Taiwan. According to the ordinance, chip manufacturers and Chinese platform service providers are banned from conducting business and related activities in Taiwan. Consequently, the Taiwanese government has completely banned the use of TikTok in public sectors, including government agencies.

Foreign media reported that this move also aims to fundamentally block the expansion of Chinese platforms' influence within Taiwan. TikTok, along with Facebook and Instagram, is one of the most widely used social media platforms in Taiwan and has recently been rapidly expanding its presence among young people in their teens and twenties.

The Taiwanese government has pointed out that Chinese authorities actively use domestic platforms like TikTok to spread disinformation about Taiwan to promote the "One China" principle.

The MAC stated that a specialized team from Taiwan's Executive Yuan detected illegal business activities by "ByteDance Taiwan Co., Ltd." on the 9th.

Executive Yuan Minister without Portfolio Luo Bingcheng emphasized at a relevant agency meeting that suspicious situations harmful to Taiwan's information and communication security related to TikTok have been found, and judicial authorities are conducting investigations.

The MAC pointed out that recently, China has been using TikTok and others for "cognitive warfare" to shake public opinion and that there is a risk of collecting users' personal information, prompting countries worldwide to take countermeasures.

Earlier, the U.S. Congress introduced a bill to completely ban TikTok in the United States, citing security concerns that ByteDance hands over American user information to the Chinese government to surveil Americans.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida), the bill's sponsor, stated, "The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect Americans from the threat of TikTok," adding, "It is not the time to waste time negotiating with a puppet company of the Chinese Communist Party. Now is the time to permanently ban TikTok."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.