Taiwan AI Labs yesterday reported a surge in online misinformation over the past few days targeting political issues ahead of next week’s legislative and presidential elections.
The research organization said it observed several groups working in tandem to undermine public trust in the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), with accounts on Facebook manipulating news regarding the stabbing to death of a New Taipei City junior-high student to support the death penalty.
A ninth-grade male student reportedly stabbed a classmate in the neck and chest on Monday last week, after a female student complained to the suspect about the way the other student had spoken to her.
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Taipei Times
Taiwan AI Labs also reported a spike in groups collaborating on TikTok seemingly to drum up support for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
It discovered accounts targeting uploads critical of the KMT on the short-form video-sharing service, flooding them with messages aimed at distracting viewers from the issues brought up in the original posts, it said.
Many of the accounts spreading disinformation were following orders from a “commander” account, Taiwan AI Labs founder Ethan Tu (杜奕瑾) said.
Using artificial intelligence technology, it found which accounts were owned by public relations firms and were generating content using software, Tu said.
Taiwan AI Labs also identified what issues the accounts were interested in manipulating, he said.
Most democratic countries are unable to defend against the mass dissemination of misinformation on social media, he said.
Taiwan is not the only country being targeted by online disinformation campaigns, as the US, which is also preparing for a presidential election in November, has also faced an uptick of disinformation directed at US President Joe Biden, he said.
Tu said he hoped to establish a countermeasure against such efforts in Taiwan.
In related news, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said he was a victim of a deepfake video being circulated online that featured his likeness in a sex act.
Lo said he had reported the incident to the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau on Tuesday night, and vowed to take action against those responsible.
He said the video was created as part of a campaign by China to influence the elections.
DPP presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that Lo was “a victim,” and that China would “stop at nothing” to influence the elections.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
RSS