By KOICHIRO ISHIDA/ Correspondent
September 2, 2023 at 15:08 JST
TAIPEI--Blatantly false information appearing on Chinese-language posts about the release by Japan of treated radioactive water into the ocean is designed to instill fear and inflame anti-Japanese sentiment, a nongovernmental organization here warns.
Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has been tracking the flow of untruths since Aug. 23, the day before Tokyo Electric Power Co. began pumping tons of filtered water from its stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.
One post that spread online like wildfire used a news video from Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) showing Yasutoshi Nishimura, the economy minister, at an Aug. 25 news conference in which he called on China to rescind its blanket ban on seafood imports from Japan.
China imposed the ban within hours of the release of treated water from the Fukushima facility into the ocean.
The video was accompanied by a Chinese explanation that said around 20,000 fish initially bound for China, Hong Kong and Macao were instead being sent to Taiwan. But nothing of the kind occurred.
In another example of news manipulation, video of polluted water flowing from a building into the ocean off the coast of Mexico taken in 2020 was used to make the claim that “Japan’s discharge of water is an evil act that is a scourge against mankind.”
TFC staff became aware of the post on Aug. 25 and checked into it immediately because it carried a Chinese explanation and a logo of TikTok, the video-sharing app operator which has a Chinese company as its parent.
Another post tried to turn the critical focus on Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
Someone claiming to be a high-ranking official of a Taiwanese human rights organization created a post that made the rounds of social media along with a photo that said, “The Tsai Ing-wen administration funneled treated water (from Fukushima) into a dam in Taiwan which is suffering from a water shortage.”
The Taiwan government flatly denied the allegation.
The TFC said it has received notifications from about 70,000 registered residents over the years about online posts that appeared to contain false information.
The center acts on posts it considers to be the most egregious and likely to be spread the furthest. Staff members with journalism backgrounds confirm the veracity of the posts by questioning experts. The result of each investigation is then released to the public.
In recent years, TFC has found many posts intended to heighten mistrust in Taiwan toward the United States and Japan regarding issues like the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Tokyo Olympics.
Summer Chen, who was in charge of the latest investigation, conceded that her organization has only been able to look into a small number of posts with false information. She said the TFC had so far been unable to pin down who made the original post or if any specific group or organization was behind them.
“Even false information that might look like a joke because it is so poorly made is believed by some people,” Chen said. “Such information should not be dismissed lightly because there is always the possibility of the next wave on the same theme appearing.”
She said the only way for the Japanese government to deal with this matter “is to strengthen its own provision of information to reduce the concerns of people.”
The Tsai administration has backed the International Atomic Energy Agency’s assessment that the Fukushima water-discharge plan meets international safety standards.
Taiwan has not opposed the discharge plan and continues to import seafood from Japan.
“There has been only limited effect on the Taiwanese public from false information regarding the treated water,” a Tsai administration official in charge of handling false information told The Asahi Shimbun.
The official added that this latest bout of fake news “is aimed at discrediting the Tsai administration’s stance toward Japan to drive a wedge into Taiwanese society as well as stir up anti-Japanese sentiment in China.”
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False information about the Fukushima water-discharge plan is spread using this video of a water pollution incident that occurred in 2020 off the coast of Mexico. (Provided by Taiwan FactCheck Center)
