Public insult and defamation

There was a poster on here years ago that flipped a guy off and went through the whole court process. I forgot the user name, but I believe we wrote for Lonely Planet at the time so if you want to dig I am sure you can find the details.

I read the Google translate of that because I can’t read Chinese especially not at this level. So I’m sure a lot was lost in translation for me.

But from what I can read this is basically an admission that there isn’t freedom of speech in this country as anything can be deemed to be in bad faith.

But what’s the most worrying is in the second paragraph where it says there’s insufficient proof that what he said is true so it must be slander.

But it should be the opposite way around logically. If you want to say what was said was a slanderous lie you should need to prove the statement was made with the express intention of damaging an image, made knowing the information was false (must prove the person was aware the information was false at the time the spread the information).

Otherwise it’s justification for political censorship. Especially since it’s the state itself determining if their is sufficient evidence to make the claim. It seems to me this law is one of the biggest obstacles in Taiwan’s full democratization.

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There was a guy who was refused a visa extension for flipping a police officer off. I know this for a fact because he was originally sent to jail and then he was refused an extension 6months later when he got a new job.

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The max is $30000. You’d have to settle and negotiate.

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I was leaving for work and had barely moved my scooter when an old man on a bicycle started shouting at me. I have no idea what he was going on about but I assume he was angry at me for sitting on my scooter. I wasn’t moving yet. It was also just in the news about a foreigner complaining about scooters on the sidewalk.

Anyhow, I hurled insults at the guy and gave him the finger. We had an audience and I was sure I would get arrested. That was weeks ago so I think I can quit worrying.

Where I’m from shouting and trading insults is good sport. It really isn’t fair that this guy could start this shouting match then turn around and have me jailed.

This isn’t to knock having a separate thread–maybe it’s best to have different threads on this kind of thing–I’m just posting this for informational purposes in case anyone wants to have a look (but please be advised, it’s a fairly long thread):

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The best argument for binding precedents imo is that they make things clear. If the highest court says X is legal and Y illegal, people know they can safely do X and have recourse to the law if Y happens to them. Taiwan doesn’t have binding precedents, except when they come from the Council of Grand Justices.

There’s no perfect system though. The USSC occasionally contradicts itself, for example. Ultimately it comes down to how capable and willing people are to function as a society. For now, it seems like a safe bet that calling a public official a bootlicker of another country on the basis of mere incompetence will get you in trouble.

That would be actual malice. Iirc the Supreme Court says yes, that’s the bar that needs to be met if the victim is a public official, but only for defamation (not public insult). The interesting thing is that they borrowed the concept from US law instead of German law for a change.

On the other hand, this is Taiwan, so the Supreme Court doesn’t have the final say.

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6f84uk

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Shut up, you wild plastic sock!

Easy peasey workaround.

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If no one understands what you’re saying, how can it be an insult, you’re just pleasing your self, it’s more like verbal masturbation.

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Hmmm, but how you say something is equally important. You don’t need to understand the language to pick up the vibes.

Public insult and defamation for bad vibes? Don’t give them ideas.

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30k for a raised eyebrow :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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If it’s referring to their signature X series engineered in Japan, I’d be OK with that. :rofl:

Guy

star-trek-spock

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I saw the same axxhole pestering someone else with a scooter on the sidewalk.

Of course, if someone is riding a scooter in an unsafe way call them out, but if the person is considerate and obviously cautious why the grief?

The offending pesterer calls out anyone near a scooter if moving or not.

I’m sure I’m not the only one to swear in a different language in response to his imagination about one might be capable of when moving a scooter from the sidewalk parking to the street.

We can test that for you in court if you really want :grin:

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So I own a food bussnies and customer comments publicly that my drink stinks and it’s gone bad, I can sue him? Fact is that my drink didn’t go bad, I guarantee that with my life, can perform any kind a test it’s 1000% good. That drink stinks might be right statement because it’s fermented product with specific smell.