Taiwan’s government has launched an investigation into TikTok, a Chinese-owned social media site, on suspicion of illegally running a subsidiary on the island, though the company’s owner has denied the charge.
TikTok, which is not extensively used in Taiwan, has come under fire, primarily in the United States, over concerns that China may gain access to users’ personal information, which the business rejects.
Taiwan’s China-policy-making Mainland Affairs Council announced late Sunday that on December 9, a working group under the Cabinet determined TikTok was suspected of “illegal commercial operations” in Taiwan.
According to Taiwan’s Liberty Times newspaper, TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, has established a subsidiary on the island to solicit business, in violation of Taiwanese law, which states that Chinese social media companies are not permitted to conduct commercial operations on the island.
Response by China’s Mainland Affairs Council on Tiktok Probe
In response to that report, the Mainland Affairs Council stated that the Cabinet’s working committee had discovered that there was actually a possible violation of the law, and legal authorities were investigating.
“In recent years, the mainland side has used short video platforms like TikTok to carry out cognitive operations and infiltration against other countries, and there is a high risk the Chinese government is collecting users’ personal information,” it added.
However, ByteDance said “recent reports” suggesting it has set up a subsidiary in Taiwan were incorrect.
“The company has not established any legal entities in Taiwan,” it said in an emailed statement to Reuters, without elaborating.
Taiwan forbids a wide variety of Chinese businesses from social media sites to the island’s highly prized chip manufacturing industry.
Taiwan has already banned government departments from using Chinese apps such as TikTok, the council said.
The most popular social media platforms in Taiwan are Facebook and Instagram
Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram are the most popular social media platforms in Taiwan. According to market research firms, TikTok lags behind its contemporaries in Taiwan but is gaining popularity among the millennials.
Taiwan has long claimed that China exploits social media to disseminate misinformation on the island it claims as its own. Taiwan passed an anti-infiltration law in 2019, as part of a multi-year campaign to counter what many in Taiwan regard as Chinese efforts to influence politics and the democratic process through illicit funding of politicians and the media, among other means. (nuttyscientists.com)