As Taiwan's Agricultural Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲）steps down amid criticism of his earlier policy to import eggs to address shortages, information researchers and experts warn that third-party fact-checking alone is not enough to combat disinformation and fake news.
Ethan Tu, founder of AI Labs, a private research organization that uses AI technology to drive societal change, told the participants at the Taiwan Forum in Bangkok that Chen’s resignation highlights Taiwan's limited resources in countering disinformation.
On September 22, Radio Taiwan International (Rti) invited Tu and other experts and journalists to discuss how media outlets are dealing with fake news and information warfare in the post-pandemic era.
Tu says that Taiwan has always been targeted for online disinformation campaigns, in which Chinese state-run media outlets play a critical role. He described the patterns of these disinformation attacks on different social media platforms by comparing them to a central kitchen that prepares and serves similar meals to different locations.
Tu pointed out that what is happening in Taiwan is not an anomaly, and that relying on nonprofit fact-checking agencies like the Fact Check Center is simply not enough. He said that disinformation has become a type of weapon that can sway public opinion and is getting better each day with the help of AI technology.
To shield against disinformation, Tu advised the public not to depend solely on social media platforms for news, as they are susceptible to manipulation.
Ttcat, CEO of Doublethink Lab, who joined Tu at the forum, discussed his organization's focus on China's information tactics to influence the global community and strategies to counter them.
He shared a case from 2019 when a Russian tabloid distorted an image of Ukrainian youths participating in Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests, portraying them as Nazis. Although the image initially garnered little attention, it went viral on China's microblog service Weibo in 2022, misleading many to believe the Ukrainian youths were fascists.
Both Tu and Ttcat stressed that disinformation is a global concern and called for increased collaboration between research institutes and media organizations in the fight against fake news and disinformation.