A cold, an earthquake, the untrustworthiness of the government and the American biolaboratory. A selection of misinformation Taiwanese people have to deal with. “After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, there were a lot of pictures circulating on the Internet that were supposed to show how people were suffering. The message was clear: we should not go to war with China, otherwise we will suffer like the people in Ukraine,” explains fact-checker Hui-An Ho in an interview for iROZHLAS.cz and Radiožurnál.
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Prague / Taipei
6:00 a.m May 4, 2024
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What is the target of disinformation in Taiwan? | Photo: Ann Wang | Source: Reuters
How does one work under Chinese supervision?
We are fact-checkers and we focus a lot on the content that is spread in the public space. It is difficult for us to say that any misinformation comes from China, from anywhere abroad, or simply from within Taiwan. It is also sometimes difficult to determine exactly if we are fighting disinformation, misinformation, and sometimes we are not sure who actually produced it.
Hui-An Ho
He works at the non-profit organization Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC), which manages and coordinates projects with international organizations. She is also the editor of an English newsletter called TFC Disinfo Detector, which aims to inform global communities about the latest disinformation trends and sightings in Taiwan. Before joining TFC in 2019, she worked as a journalist and China correspondent for Taiwan’s Economic Daily News for seven years.
I ask this also in view of the imminent danger that Taiwan faces in the form of the Chinese threat. I wonder if you feel any Chinese influence in your daily life?
It was felt especially before the presidential elections (which took place in Taiwan in January – editor’s note). There was a kind of fear spreading in society that fueled fears of war.
At the end of last year, we published a research article in which we verified the information that was circulating at the time. I can name seven main disinformation narratives that have focused on the aforementioned fear. We found that disinformation creators seem to be trying to paint a picture that contrasts a strong Chinese military with a would-be weak Taiwanese counterpart.
Many allusions also referred to the United States or referred to the US-China relationship. Disinformation portrayed the US as an unreliable ally that could leave Taiwan in the lurch if necessary.
Another similar claim was that, for example, US President Joe Biden has a plan to destroy Taiwan, or that the US is building a bio-lab to research some kind of weapon targeting Chinese DNA.
The most popular misinformation
What has changed since the presidential election? Or is similar disinformation still spreading?
I feel that misinformation and misinformation is being spread along with some larger news event. So, for example, during the elections, everything revolved around them. Recently, Taiwan was hit by a strong earthquake, and subsequently we saw a lot of fake information about the earthquake. Now there is not so much misinformation about the election, but still something about the earthquake. He really moves the narrative that is being spread.
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Can you name some other topics that are commonly shared in Taiwan?
The most popular is misinformation related to health. For example, about how to get well, typically how to get rid of a cold. Such things are the most popular. People like to share because they care about others, think it might be good for others, want to share seemingly useful information. The problem is that they don’t verify them and then spread falsehoods.
Nothing major specifically about China is widely shared?
Of course, China is also a pretty big topic. But not as much as health. Something closer to people’s everyday life is spreading much more. Such things are the most popular.
A sense of injustice
I find that interesting. Whenever I talk to people about Taiwan, or read about it in the news, it always touches on China in some way. That’s why I’m surprised that, for example, in the context of disinformation, it’s not such a big topic…
I would say that China is definitely a big topic in Taiwan. But really, when it comes to disinformation, other topics dominate them.
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So let me ask another question: do you feel that China is trying to influence the Taiwanese government? According to what you watch spread for information…
One of the goals of disinformation is to sow mistrust, divide society, and alienate people from the government. It creates the feeling that the truth is different than the authorities present it, i.e. that people should not trust the electoral system because it is not fair. They point to a lot of electoral fraud and things like that. Which is in someone’s interest, but I can’t say that the misinformation came from China, as I mentioned earlier.
So what is the response from society? Is disinformation successful?
Impact is hard to measure. If I take the presidential election as an example – the candidate of the ruling party won. So you could say that the disinformation operation didn’t work very well. On the other hand, the ruling party lost the Congress elections. It’s a bit tricky.
‘Suffering like Ukrainians’
Speaking of the elections and the impact of disinformation on their outcome… The European Parliament elections are taking place in a month, and it’s only been a few weeks since the Czech Security Information Service (BIS) revealed a Russian influence network whose target, among other things, was the European elections. I already asked you about the Chinese influence, so I would like to know if you perceive the activities and the Russian disinformation scene?
To be honest, I don’t feel that much about Russia. But we’re more focused on fact-checking, so we focus on the content itself. And sometimes it’s really difficult for us to find out who created that content or who started spreading it. So I can’t tell if it’s a thing from China or even from Russia.
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It is true that some of the narratives that began to spread in Taiwan were created by Taiwanese people. It was shared by local smaller media, influencers on social networks, then some politicians, and later Chinese actors or even state media, government officials and the like also took it up. We have been observing this pattern since last year.
At the beginning of our conversation, you mentioned that before the presidential election, there was disinformation that caused fear of war. In this context, is there any information about the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Because it’s a big topic in Europe…
Yes, we observe that. And it is precisely in this context that some creators of disinformation try to spread fear of war. So it is interesting that after the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war, there were a lot of pictures circulating on the Internet that were supposed to show how people were suffering from the war. And these kinds of images, when shared, are accompanied by the comment that it shows what it would look like if we went to war with China. That it will have such consequences. The message is clear: we should not go to war with China or we will suffer like the people in Ukraine.
I would say that some misinformers or information manipulators are trying to use these events, such as the Russian-Ukrainian war or the conflict between Hamas and Israel, to sow fear in Taiwan.
Anna Urbanová
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