Taiwan was last year the most targeted country by foreign governments spreading false information for the ninth consecutive year, a study released this month showed.
The nation was followed by Latvia and Palestine as a target for false information spread by foreign governments, the Sweden-based Varieties of Democracy Institute-affiliated Digital Society Project reported in its latest report.
The governments of Turkmenistan, North Korea and Myanmar were the world’s most significant spreaders of false information, while China and Russia were ranked sixth and 12th respectively, the study showed.
The volume of disinformation being circulated has multiplied with “fake news” increasingly becoming a tool of autocratic states for manipulating public opinion at home and abroad, it said.
False information has contributed to the polarization of public opinion, with the Middle East, North Africa and Asia Pacific being the regions most affected by false information, it said.
Autocracies fell further behind democracies in informational transparency and reliability after making widespread use of false data about economic growth and COVID-19 in a bid to burnish their international and domestic image, it said.
Autocracies have also clamped down on Internet freedoms to control public access to information, making their societies more reliant on government sources than before, it added.
Although false information being spread by foreign sources in Taiwan can be identified, their exact origin is not known, said Wang Yi-ting (王奕婷), one of the study’s researchers and an associate professor of political science at National Cheng Kung University.
China is one of the countries known to make extensive use of internal and external propaganda, she added.
Chen Chih-wei (陳志瑋), an associate professor of public administration at Tamkang University, yesterday said that combating disinformation is increasingly becoming an important issue for public health, safety and national security.
The government should treat the spread of false information surrounding the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to educate people on fact-checking the stories they read, he said.
Additionally, enhancing ties among law enforcement, national security and private groups such as the Taiwan FactCheck Center can help in identifying false information sources and mitigating harm, he said.
Tseng Kuan-chiu (曾冠球), a professor of civic education and leadership at National Taiwan Normal University, said that most people are likely uninterested in reading fact-checker sites.
Significant resources would have to be devoted to cultivating news and digital literacy through public education to “inoculate” people against fake news, he added.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS