Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Internet must be free of monopolies

Liberty Times Editorial

Social media companies are not creators of news, yet their online platforms carry links to content produced by news and media organizations, driving users to their highly profitable sites. This has led to a long-running debate over whether social media companies should be paying for the privilege of providing such links to their users.

The dispute on Thursday last week took a new twist when the Australian government passed new legislation — the News Media Bargaining Code — that requires Facebook and Google to pay for news content carried on their platforms.

Lithuania plans to open office in Taiwan: report

Taipei Times

Leaders of Lithuania’s ruling coalition pose for photographers on Nov. 9 last year.
Photo: Screen grab from Facebook

Lithuania plans to open a representative office in Taiwan, and leave a Beijing-led alliance with central and eastern European nations, Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT) quoted a lawmaker as saying on Tuesday.

Ma, Jaw can help as guinea pigs

Tommy Lin 林逸民

Vaccination strategies are highly scientific, with best practices for vaccine selection and vaccination procedures depending on a country’s particular situation.

However, politicians can always be relied on to politicize an issue. In this case, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and would-be president Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康) are blatant examples. As well as singing the praises of Chinese vaccines, they have escalated the vaccination strategy issue into a Taiwan Strait issue.

Two US lawmakers introduce bill on recognizing Taiwan

Taipei Times

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday thanked two US lawmakers for proposing a resolution urging their country to scrap its “one China” policy and recognize Taiwan as an independent nation.

The concurrent resolution was introduced by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, both Republicans.

KMT fakes its opposition to China

Lin Han 林志翰

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) talked about “opposing the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in a recent Facebook post, writing that opposing the CCP is not the special reserve of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Not long after, many people within the KMT received a mysterious letter signed “Chinese Nationalist Party Central Committee” containing what looked like a declaration of opposition to, and a call to arms against, the CCP.

Unexpectedly, the KMT’s Culture and Communications Committee came forward with a clarification, saying that the letter was not sent by the KMT and telling the public not to believe this piece of “fake news.”

‘Wuhan’ anger exposes the KMT

Liberty Times Editorial

During a Lunar New Year’s Day visit to Xingtian Temple in Taipei on Feb. 12, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told reporters that, in his opinion, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should no longer refer to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan pneumonia” (“武漢肺炎”).

He also opined: “If China offers [Taiwan] a [COVID-19] vaccine, the government should not decline the offer out of hand.”

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