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🇹🇼 Taiwan /Elections & Politics

Vietnamese Bot Accounts and Simplified Chinese Messages Congratulate Keelung Mayor on Election Win

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • A large number of Vietnamese accounts posted comments congratulating Keelung Mayor George Hsieh on winning the year-end mayoral election after he registered as a candidate.
  • Some comments used simplified Chinese, prompting concerns about possible foreign influence in the election.
  • Hsieh denied authorizing or participating in the activity and asked the public to investigate what happened.

A sudden wave of Vietnamese accounts appeared on Keelung Mayor George Hsieh’s social-media pages after he registered for the year-end mayoral election. Some of the messages used simplified Chinese and congratulated him on winning.

The activity prompted public questions about whether foreign forces had intervened in the election. Hsieh said neither he nor his office had instructed anyone to post the comments, and that his team had taken no part in the activity.

We have no idea how this happened.

— George HsiehThe Keelung mayor said he and his team did not understand the sudden appearance of the messages.

“We have no idea how this happened,” Hsieh said, describing the situation as puzzling. He asked members of the public to play detective and uncover the truth, adding that the investigation might reveal something amusing or another interesting message for people to share.

Please play detective and dig out the truth.

— George HsiehHe urged the public to investigate the source of the foreign-language comments.
About this summary

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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