The official Facebook page of the World Health Organization (WHO) was found to be blocked earlier this week from posting messages containing the word “Taiwan” and other words, drawing the attention of several U.S. congressmen. Although WHO has unblocked the keyword “Taiwan,” “Winnie the Pooh” continues to be blocked. This has led to criticism that the WHO is imposing China-style censorship. Some Republican lawmakers have said it is “undoubtedly to please China”.
On Thursday, several Taiwanese media reported that the WHO’s Facebook page blocked any comments containing the words “Taiwan” or “Taiwan can help” in relation to Taiwan. Users also found the phrases “Wuhan virus” and “China virus” blocked.
WHO later claimed that it faced a large number of cyber attacks during the WHO General Assembly, with many of the messages mentioning “China” and “Taiwan” sparking controversy and preventing other users from discussing health issues. As a result, WHO said, “When this happens, its social media management team will set content filters. The content restrictions on Taiwan have now been lifted.
Rep. Michael McCaul’s (R-TX) office, the chief Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a response to a Voice of America email on Thursday that Rep. McCaul was concerned about the WHO’s approach.
“I am deeply troubled by the WHO’s apparent involvement in a move to censor online discussions of the content of the outstanding performance of Taiwan’s epidemic prevention efforts, no doubt to please the Chinese Communist Party,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s chief Republican Rep. “Taiwan’s membership in the World Health Organization is critical to global health.”
McCall added that the WHO should have to invite Taiwan to join and participate in future meetings.
According to Deutsche Welle, Facebook says they are not directly involved in the management of the WHO Facebook Live, which includes the ability to block specific keywords or turn off messages. Facebook’s fan page blocking features are available to fan page administrators around the world, who can use them as they see fit.
Although the blocking of “Taiwan” has been lifted, “Winnie the Pooh” continues to be blocked on the WHO’s Facebook page. A Voice of America reporter on Friday night tested the block by trying to post messages under “Winnie the Pooh” and the WHO Facebook page said it was unavailable.
Republican federal Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) also responded to the WHO’s ban on discussions about Taiwan on Twitter on Friday as well.
“Why would China try to silence Taiwan at a WHO meeting? Probably because Taiwan’s efforts to contain the spread of the new coronavirus have been so successful,” Senator Blackburn said.
As of Friday, Taiwan, with a population of 23 million, had a cumulative total of 597 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, most of which have been imported from outside the country.
Taiwan’s representative to the U.S., Hsiao Mei-chin, tweeted Thursday that if the WHO did block “Taiwan” messages on its Facebook fan page, “this represents the success of Facebook and WHO’s joint effort to block Taiwan’s response to the neo-crown epidemic.
The newest addition to the list is the newest addition to the list, which will be available on the website. Xiao Meiqin said, “WHO’s adoption of Chinese Communist-style censorship is worrying!”
She hopes WHO understands that denying Taiwan’s contribution to WHO would be a great loss to the organization, especially at a time when the world needs to work together to fight the epidemic.
On Monday, the US Mission in Geneva tweeted a photo of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Andrew Bremberg with a message that read “Taiwan Can Help”. The tweet also noted that Ambassador Bloomberg saw the installation art in front of the United Nations Headquarters and said that he “couldn’t agree more! The tweet also noted that Ambassador Bloomberg saw the installation in front of the United Nations Headquarters, which read “Taiwan Can Help”, and said he “couldn’t agree more!” The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for Taiwan to be invited to join the WHO Assembly.
This year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) held a six-day videoconference from Nov. 9, and despite much international recognition of Taiwan’s performance in the fight against the neo-coronavirus pandemic epidemic preparedness, Taiwan was not invited to participate in the meeting by the WHO. This is the fourth time since 2017 that Taiwan has been unable to participate in the World Health Assembly.
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