Chinese woman investigated for live streaming Taipei school children on Douyin, raising privacy concerns

Taipei [Taiwan], May 27 (ANI): A Chinese citizen is under investigation for potential violations of privacy after reportedly live-streaming videos of elementary school students leaving school in Taipei, police said on Monday, according to a report by Focus Taiwan.

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The individual, identified by her last name Liu, is a 52-year-old Chinese woman married to a Taiwanese citizen and currently residing in Taiwan, according to the Songshan police precinct. The incident was brought to public attention by Taipei City Councillor Hsu Shu-hua, who detailed the May 15 event that took place in the Minsheng community of the city in a Facebook post, according to Focus Taiwan.

Hsu, a member of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, stated that a Chinese social media streamer was allegedly recording children on Douyin, which is the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, despite being repeatedly asked by them to stop. "The streaming stopped only when the parents threatened to contact law enforcement," Hsu reported.

Police said that law enforcement arrived at the scene only to find the streamer had already left, but she was later located the next day using surveillance camera footage from nearby areas and was brought in for questioning.

Following complaints filed by the city councillor, the Songshan precinct confirmed that the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office would investigate the incident for alleged breaches of the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act, as well as privacy violations under the Criminal Code.

Police noted that recording individuals without their consent could infringe upon portrait rights, and that sharing images of minors online might contravene child protection laws, as mentioned in the Focus Taiwan report.

The case has stirred concern amid Taiwan's complex relationship with China. Taiwan, formally recognised as the Republic of China (ROC), maintains its own government, military, and economy, functioning as an effectively independent nation.

However, China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province and upholds the "One China" principle, which claims that there is a single China governed from Beijing. This has fueled decades of political tension, especially since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, when the ROC government relocated to Taiwan after the Communist Party took control of mainland China. Beijing continues to push for reunification, employing diplomatic, military, and economic strategies to isolate Taiwan internationally. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)