The Samsung Galaxy S4. (Photo/CNA)
Samsung Mobile Taiwan will not launch its latest smartphone on Tuesday as was originally scheduled, but it denied that the move had anything to do with recent accusations that it was deceptively pitching its product online.
Samsung Taiwan explained the schedule change as necessary to meet the Galaxy S4's global launch schedule, but it gave no further details on the phone's new launch date, according to local retail outlets.
The announcement came just days after media reports of a post in an online forum saying that the South Korea-based electronics giant hired workers in Taiwan to open several sock-puppet accounts as part of a marketing campaign to promote the new phone in the country.
The post, which has gone viral online, said Opentide Taiwan, a marketing company hired by Samsung, asked part-time workers to use multiple propaganda accounts on the internet to promote the company's phones and attack products from its rivals.
A "sock-puppet account" is an account set up to by a user to assume a false identity, usually with the intention to deceive or mislead others in online communities.
Samsung Taiwan responded to the charge on its Facebook page on Saturday by saying that it had not interfered with any online product evaluation report and had stopped online marketing campaigns involving posting or responding to messages in online forums. It also said it would step up staff education.