Taiwan parties call for action against TikTok threat

TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's political parties, including the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP) and the New Power Party (NPP), held a press conference on Friday (May 10), urging the government to address the threat posed by the short video platform TikTok to Taiwan's national security and to enact legislation to protect cybersecurity.

TSP Chairman Wang Hsing-huan, Secretary-General Wu Hsin-tai, NPP Chairwoman Claire Wang, Green Party Secretary-General Wang Yen-han, and Economic Democracy Union Deputy Secretary-General Hsu Kuan-tze convened the press conference at the Legislative Yuan under the banner "Cybersecurity is National Security! Don't Wait for a Taiwan Version of the TikTok Act."

Claire Wang stated that according to academic and NGO research, TikTok's algorithm deliberately suppresses topics sensitive to China. She noted that while India banned TikTok in 2020 and the U.S. demanded in April that TikTok break away from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, Taiwan has only prohibited public departments from using TikTok, which she deemed insufficient.

Wang called on the digital development and national security departments to investigate TikTok's influence in Taiwan and urged the Executive Yuan to draft a Taiwan version of the TikTok Act based on the investigation's findings. She stressed that the government has an obligation to propose legal drafts and countermeasures to safeguard national security.

Wang Hsing-huan suggested that Taiwan should regulate digital services based on constitutional principles and the concept of digital sovereignty. He proposed restarting discussions on the draft Digital Intermediary Services Act, which includes provisions to regulate cross-border digital platforms and ban platforms like TikTok that are completely controlled by hostile nations like China.