Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/05/05
By: Huang Li-yun and Emerson Lim

CNA file photo

Taipei, May 5 (CNA) Two people who shared a photograph said to be of earthquake damage to a road in Taipei City are facing charges for “causing public panic,” the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said Sunday.

The CIB identified the two as a woman surnamed Lai (賴) and a man with the last name Wang (王). Both have been questioned by police for posting a photo with a caption claiming “massive cracks appear on Songren Road in Taipei City” on social media April 18 after a magnitude 6.1 quake hit eastern Taiwan.

The “cracks” were later confirmed by Taipei city engineers to be asphalt fillers applied to the road during previous maintenance work, but the post had already caused panic among netizens, the police said.

A taskforce created by CIB’s Electronic Surveillance Division to determine the source of the photograph first identified Lai as one of the sources of the “fake news.”
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