Taiwan has been able to effectively respond to Chinese disinformation in part because of how seriously the threat is perceived there, according to Kenton Thibaut, a senior resident fellow and expert on Chinese disinformation at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. Instead of a piecemeal approach — focusing solely on media literacy, for instance, or relying only on the government to fact-check false rumors — Taiwan adopted a multifaceted approach, what Thibaut called a “whole of society response” that relied on government, independent fact-check groups and even private citizens to call out disinformation and propaganda.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Alexander Tah-Ray Yui, Taipei’s economic and cultural representative to the U.S., said the government has learned it must identify and debunk false information as quickly as possible in order to counter false narratives. Yui is Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the U.S.
“Find it early, like a tumor or cancer. Cut it before it spreads,” Yui said of foreign disinformation.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Worries that China would use disinformation to undermine the integrity of Taiwan’s vote dogged the recent election, a key moment in the young democracy’s development that highlighted tensions with its much larger neighbor.
Taiwan’s FactCheck Center debunked multiple videos of alleged voter fraud, including another one in which voting officials make a human error caught on camera.
Notably, Taiwan has resisted calls for tougher laws that would require social media platforms to police their sites; a proposal to institute such rules was withdrawn in 2022 after free speech concerns were raised.
“We have a dynamic in American politics where if you’re Russia, China or Iran, you don’t have to inject divisive topics, because they’re already here,” said Jim Ludes, a former national defense analyst who now leads the Pell Center for International Relations at Salve Regina University.
Although Ko, the presidential candidate, said publicly he didn’t believe there was election fraud, legislators from the TPP held a conference Wednesday in which they shared videos of miscounting that had spread online, which had already been debunked, to call for greater adherence to voting regulations.
Unlike in years past, where Chinese disinformation was easily recognized and mocked for its use of simplified characters and vocabulary from China, this video featured a man speaking with a Taiwanese accent and in a way that appeared completely local.
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lol. This is one way to say they arrested journalists and banned media coverage.
Where do you see anything about arresting journalists or banning media coverage?
It’s always projection with these fascist tankies
To them anything that goes against the CCP is evil, ruzzia and the CCP can do no wrong in their eyes.
The CCP is evil and so is Russia.
So is censoring people during an election.
I’m not a ‘tankie’, I’m pretty sure I’m banned from those grad and bear instances.
What I am is not American, so I don’t have a vested interest in the sports-team-politics at play here.
How is being American have anything to do with Taiwans elections?
i think hes referring to the strawman of “ccp and russia cant be criticized by the left” or “ccp bad us good” tropes
those are opposite ideologies
that is assuming you mean tankie = ml communism
Is this code for the US-favored candidate winning?
Sure, there is no “peoples will” here. Just super powers manipuliating a dumb mass. Next time, be a liitle bit more creative. You’re a chinese employer is not happy with your work…
Meanwhile the same ruling party tried to censor a Taiwanese comedy show and its guest with its fully on propaganda machine becuz the show and its guest ridiculed the party for playing minority cards for legislator-at-large votes
