As PTT is a liberal platform for
public opinion, it allows netizens to access and comment on social matters easily, including news or specific persons, based on their personal perspective and/or agenda. However, since netizens on PTT do not need to disclose their real names while citing news or publishing their opinions, some netizens abuse their status of
anonymity and make undesirable comments. PTT is therefore easily used to publish
fake news and incite
cyberbullying. The death of model and actress
Cindy Yang is an occurrence of this, and it is the first time that PTT users were made aware of this issue. Cindy Yang, a model and actress, committed suicide in 2015 after suffering from taunts and accusations from various social media users, notably those on PTT. The news about Yang's suicide triggered a heated discussion. Some netizens began to self-examine the bullying culture in PTT. Celebrities, politicians, and their families are often targets of bullying by PTT users, including Chen Hsing-Yu, the daughter of former president
Chen Shui-bian. She and her boyfriend's (now husband's) relationship became the cover story of the first issue of The Next Magazine. Subsequently, corruption incidents attributed to her father, and insider trading allegations against her partner were leveraged for harassment by users of PTT for several years. Additionally, in 2017, the Islamic Association of Taiwan publicly criticized PTT for allowing its users to spread fake news and post
hate speech about
Muslims, and calling it names such as "garbage religion" or "Muslims are trash", thus the Islamic Association of Taiwan protested against the government to voice concern about the abuse of anonymity on PTT. Much of the fake news is copied and recycled by
tabloids and even
mainstream media, and causes foreign media to be confused, particularly during elections. In 2009,
Dell Computer's mispricing of its
LCD monitor and notebook products on its official website aroused lots of PTT users to search for cheap deals. Thousands of netizens were mobilized to order the mispriced items to sell at a fraction of their original prices within just a few hours. At the beginning, some netizens ordered a small amount of the mispriced products. Many of them posted photos about their orders and led other PTT users to engage in irrational and extreme behavior. A PTT account with the username "connyli", for instance, posted the photo showing his orders were valued more than NT$360 million. By 7:00 a.m. the next morning, when Dell urgently closed its online order system, more than 43,000 orders, valued at NT$2 billion, had been placed from PTT . The court, however, finally ruled against PTT users who tried to take advantage of erroneous information to force Dell to sell below their cost, and the case was dismissed.
The death of Taiwan's representative in Osaka Like all other anonymous or semi-anonymous internet communities in Taiwan, there is plenty of fake news and many acts of cyberbullying on PTT. In recent years, the most notable is one of Su Chii-Cherng (蘇啟誠), Taiwan's representative in
Osaka, who committed suicide in 2018. Su Chii-Cherng left a letter saying that he was suffering from the hate speech he had received. His office was accused of not assisting Taiwanese tourists stranded at the
Kansai International Airport in the wake of
Typhoon Jebi. During the Typhoon Jebi crisis, it was falsely reported that Taiwanese tourists had to identify themselves as Chinese in order to be allowed to board a Chinese bus that was used during the rescue efforts, which resulted in
Frank Hsieh, Taiwan's representative in Japan, receiving criticism from other PTT users. A PTT account with the username "idcc" posted messages that claimed that the Osaka office was beyond Hsieh's control and said that the Osaka office should take all responsibility for the crisis. This was untrue because the Osaka office directly reports to Frank Hsieh's office, which is the highest-ranking government office of Taiwan in Japan; the Taiwan Representative Office. Yet, the Osaka office took the blame from the media and netizens. Su found it unbearable and committed suicide. Prosecutors later found that the account's IP address could be linked directly to Slow Yang, who is considered as pro-DPP figure and a member of Frank Hsieh's faction. Furthermore, Slow Yang was accused of paying and asking others to post fake news in order to protect Frank Hsieh at the expense of Su's life.
Manipulation of public opinion by political parties According to interviews from Common Wealth Magazine, one of the biggest business magazines in Taiwan, people try to form public opinions in PTT and seek to influence the larger society especially during an election year.
Han Kuo-Yu and FFASIC In April 2019, a PTT account with the username "ken4645" posted an article titled "Are Wang Jin-Pyng and Han Kuo-Yu related to China's online warriors?" This article, along with several fake photos, alleged that the Farmers' and Fishermen's Association South Information Center (FFASIC) and KMT presidential candidate
Han Kuo-Yu received funds from China and tried to purchase Facebook pages for spreading misleading information in order to influence public opinion related to the election. However, the article was later proved to be false. The user spreading the hoax was proved to be linked to the pro-DPP group and thereafter was investigated by the prosecutor.
Tsai Ing-wen's dissertation In June 2019, the Taiwan People News published a column written by Cao Chang-Qing which alleged that President
Tsai Ing-Wen paid off officials at the
London School of Economics (LSE) to obtain her
Ph.D. This article raised thousands of comments on PTT. However, after several months, LSE officially verified that Tsai was awarded her Ph.D. in 1984 and disproved the accusations against her. However, even after the official statement from LSE, some people continued to call the authenticity of President Tsai's PhD degree into question. For instance, Dennis Peng, who has openly questioned Tsai's PhD title since 2019. == See also ==