TAIPEI–Blatantly false information appearing on Chinese-language posts about the release by Japan of treated radioactive water into the ocean is designed to instill fear and inflame anti-Japanese sentiment, a nongovernmental organization here warns.
Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has been tracking the flow of untruths since Aug. 23, the day before Tokyo Electric Power Co. began pumping tons of filtered water from its stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.
One post that spread online like wildfire used a news video from Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) showing Yasutoshi Nishimura, the economy minister, at an Aug. 25 news conference in which he called on China to rescind its blanket ban on seafood imports from Japan.
China imposed the ban within hours of the release of treated water from the Fukushima facility into…
