TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA, 數發部), the government agency overseeing the island's digital transformation and cybersecurity initiatives, announced on Wednesday (June 18) that it has begun evaluating whether to place Meta's rapidly growing Threads platform under regulatory oversight following the introduction of advertising features on the social media service. The announcement came during a session of the Legislative Yuan's (立法院, Taiwan's parliament) Transportation Committee (交通委員會), where Minister Huang Yen-nun (黃彥男) had been invited to deliver a special report titled "Promoting Industrial Development Policies for AI" (推動AI之產業發展政策).
During the committee session, Minister Huang outlined specific criteria that would trigger regulatory action, including Threads' user penetration rate in Taiwan and the platform's potential risk for fraudulent advertising. The digital affairs minister noted that MODA already regulates several major internet advertising platforms, including Google, LINE, Meta's other services, and TikTok, underscoring the government's established framework for digital oversight. When pressed on current enforcement actions, Director Lin Chun-hsiu (林俊秀) of the Administration of Digital Industries, a division within MODA, revealed that the agency had already intervened in one instance, requesting that Meta remove deceptive advertisements from Threads — a directive with which the tech giant promptly complied.
The issue drew cross-party attention during the legislative session, with Kuomintang (KMT, 國民黨), Taiwan's main opposition party, legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) expressing particular concern about Threads' growing influence in Taiwan's social media landscape and questioning why the platform had not yet been placed under formal regulatory supervision. Adding statistical weight to the discussion, Taiwan People's Party (TPP, 民眾黨), a centrist political party founded in 2019, legislator Lin Kuo-cheng (林國成) pointed out that Threads has already amassed approximately 3.5 million users across Taiwan, representing a significant portion of the island's 23 million population and strengthening the case for government oversight. ◼