Linkages between America and the Taiwanese election narrative

Dec. 19, 2023

Taipei, Taiwan 

Linkages between America and the Taiwanese election narrative

Greetings from Taiwan, where from this vantage point I see America catching on to the narrative about the election coming up in Taiwan and what it foretells about this upcoming year of elections across the democratic world.  The Washington Post newsletter delivered to me today contained three stories about the use of AI in elections.  The top story is about Chinese disinformation created with AI.  “Well-dressed AI-generated news anchors are spewing pro-Chinese propaganda, amplified by bot networks sympathetic to Beijing,” the article reads.  This is not too far off from the truth here in Taipei, where disinformation from China constitutes part of the daily threat of influence operations designed to interfere in the free elections.  Here, it is often packaged with other influence campaigns into an overall paradigm of cognitive warfare.  Deepfakes and bot swarms have all been discovered here and more lurks under the surface.  

Meanwhile, The Atlantic says “Feelings and Vibes Can’t Sustain a Democracy” and “in the 21st century, democracies face the added danger of disinformation efforts from authoritarians at home and hostile powers overseas.”  They then linked to an FBI page about foreign influence operations.  This page notes that foreign influence operations are widely reported to happen through social media platform operations, but others include traditional intelligence tradecraft routes, criminal efforts to suppress voting and illegally finance elections, and cyber attacks against voting infrastructure and elected officials.  This wouldn’t be too far off from a description of China’s influence operations in Taiwan as well.  

It remains problematic to provide answers to how to counter foreign influence operations, even in Taiwan where they are part of daily life.  US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns set US expectations from the Taiwanese elections as “free of intimidation, or coercion, or interference” but the technology is new and so is the corresponding policy requirement.  

Here on the front lines of the war against disinformation, a couple of strategies have been emerging to deal with the vast amount of disinformation from China.  

The first factor is the combating disinformation has to be a whole-of-society endeavor, with specialized NGOs down to conversations among everyday people all involved somehow in the effort.  A significant component of this is making it socially acceptable to debunk disinformation in casual conversation.  This is starting to be the norm in Taiwan.  

The second factor is increasing the media literacy of the population, especially the elderly.  One developing notion of what media literacy looks like is for people to have reasonable suspicion about what they read, especially if it is shocking or contradictory, and allow room for the doubt over whether it is true or not — this would improve society into a more literate crowd when it comes to media.  Taiwan has made great strides in those two factors and it may be up to the US next to do the same in or own way.  It may have to be the case that truly excellent 21st century citizenship must include media literacy and making contributions toward that end. 

When all is said and done, the war against disinformation is only won by the most sophisticated sort of citizenship, which is very simply described as being an educated citizen or civic participant. 

The AI election is here - The Washington Post

Combating Foreign Influence — FBI

US warns China on meddling in Taiwan elections - Taipei Times