Page 3 - Technology Temple News Today

Online platforms that have more than 2.3 million active users would be declared “designated online platform operators” and required to disclose their recommendation algorithms in user service agreements, the draft digital intermediary service act (數位中介服務法草案) approved yesterday by the National Communications Commission (NCC) says. Previously known as the “digital communications draft act,” the formulation of the bill references the EU Digital Services Act, which the Eur...

A friend of mine told me that when he was a child, he once won first place in a speech contest. When he presented the award after returning home, his father threw it to the ground, shouting that it was useless. All his father valued was top performance in exams — nothing else mattered. This obsolete ideology, which prevails in many families in Taiwan, is arguably a legacy of the civil service examination system in imperial China. At a recent cultural conference, film director Wang Hsiao-ti ...

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) is fond of criticizing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for attacking him with “cyberwarriors.” He has said: “If the DPP continues to govern by cyberarmy, it will meet its nemesis sooner or later.” That was an impressive prediction. Before the DPP meets its nemesis, Ko’s own cyberwarriors hidden at the Taipei City Government have been exposed, one after another, despite his curse on the party. If people were asking whether he was operating a cy...

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) for the past few weeks has been embroiled in a controversy about the use of so-called cyberarmies. An accusation first surfaced on June 2, when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said in a council hearing that the account “LoveError” had been using the Professional Technology Temple online bulletin board system to disseminate false information and attack the party. “LoveError” is reported to have said tha...

Internet celebrity Liu Yu (劉宇), fed up with accusations on the online bulletin board Professional Technology Temple (PTT) that he was part of a cyberarmy seeking to change public opinion, used his influence to crowdsource an investigation of the real identity of PTT user “kuloda,” the source of these accusations. The investigation revealed the source to be Lin Yu-sheng (林育生) a department head in the Taipei Department of Transportation. Lin deleted the post — but not before his id...

Has a stranger ever asked you for your used High Speed Rail (HSR) ticket after you exit the station? Last year, the Liberty Times (Taipei Times’ sister paper) reported that two people were stopping passengers at the gates and requesting their stubs. A passenger noticed that they already had their hands on several. It’s possible that these folks were HSR enthusiasts, but it’s more likely that they were looking to make a quick buck. E-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Yahoo Auctions and R...

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) sparked a controversy for allegedly pressuring a police officer not to give her a parking ticket. On Tuesday last week, she and her husband parked their vehicle in a no parking zone in a lane along Guangfu S Road in the capital before going into a restaurant. The officer’s body cam footage, which was later released, showed Hsu’s husband emerging from the restaurant and spotting the officer checking their vehicl...

The print newspaper and mobile app of the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) are the most popular news sources in Taiwan, a survey released on Saturday by the Shih Hsin University found. The survey, conducted by the university’s College of Journalism and Communication, found that the Liberty Times is the most-read print newspaper and mobile news app among Taiwanese residents, ahead of apps produced by the Central News Agency (CNA) and SETN. Those who avidly follo...

Autocracies often expand their power through two approaches: One is by using the influence of economic and combat power, the other by employing diplomacy and propaganda. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its second month, there has been relentless bombardment and information warfare. The foreign affairs spokespeople of two autocracies — China and Russia — have unanimously attacked the US and Ukraine via conferences and state media. They took to social media to accuse Ukraine of makin...

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine indicates the emergence of a new Russia-China alliance — an “authoritarian bloc” that seeks to challenge the US-led democratic world order. The invasion has sparked intense local debate, with many concerned that China might follow suit and invade Taiwan. Chinese nationalists and pro-Beijing Taiwanese have been hammering away at their keyboards in an attempt to shape the narrative around the Russian invasion. Many posts and comments r...