Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee says China's boycott of Taiwan's Golden Horse film awards demonstrates how politics can take its toll on the arts.
Beijing's order to give Saturday night's awards show the cold shoulder was part of its campaign to rachet up economic and political pressure on the island it claims as its own territory.
Speaking to reporters Saturday night, Lee said politics was "an aspect we do not want to see. But we have to face it, because we live in this world."
"Everybody knows it, it is indeed a loss, no matter the red carpet or the films," said Lee, the festival's chair. "But of course, our best films, I personally think that they are not less good than the previous years. We still have very good films this year."
China held its own Golden Rooster film awards Saturday, featuring films approved by Communist Party censors.
Even without the ban, Chinese artists might have found it difficult to attend after Beijing issued a ban on solo travel to Taiwan beginning Sept. 1.
Chinese participation came into doubt following last year's ceremony, when documentary director Fu Yue said in her award acceptance speech that she hoped the world would one day recognize Taiwan as an independent country, something only a handful of nations currently do.
Taiwan split from mainland China amid civil war in 1949, but Beijing considers the self-ruled island part of its territory.
Speakers at Saturday's Golden Horse Awards also expressed support for anti-government protesters in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong.
Entertainment figures in Taiwan and Hong Kong have routinely been blacklisted in China after expressing pro-independence or pro-democracy views.
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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