People’s leanings toward certain political parties hamper efforts to debunk false information about politics, a Taiwan FactCheck Center report said.
Staunch Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supporters are more likely to embrace fact-checking reports that disprove false claims about their party, said Chang Yu-tzung (張佑宗), a political science professor at National Taiwan University (NTU).
However, they are less willing to accept reports debunking disinformation about other parties, Chang said, citing his analysis in the report.
People from all backgrounds heed reports that disprove false information about health and lifestyle-related issues, he said.
The effectiveness of reports on political disinformation is often determined by an individual’s pre-existing political beliefs rather than the quality of the reports, Chang said.
Civil society groups providing fact-checking services should thus target independent and “soft” supporters of different parties when debunking false information about politics, he added.
Journalists writing fact-checking reports should try to maintain a neutral tone and refrain from preaching if they want them to be effective, Chang said.
Chang’s analysis is based on a survey he and two NTU colleagues conducted online and by telephone from April 1 to 17. They collected a total of 2,399 valid responses.
Taiwan FactCheck Center, a nonprofit, non-governmental fact-checking group established in 2018, said that its annual report also seeks to understand the perception Taiwanese have of the spread and response to disinformation.
The report showed that 63 percent of Taiwanese support government intervention in curbing the spread of disinformation, even if it risks undermining freedom of expression, said Hung Chen-ling (洪貞玲), director of NTU’s Graduate Institute of Journalism.
Nearly 32 percent of survey respondents considered legislation to be “the best approach” to controlling the proliferation of disinformation, she said.
Ninety percent of those surveyed said legislation requiring social media platforms to establish mechanisms to tackle disinformation is needed, she added.
However, such legislation would be “very difficult” to pass, as Taiwanese value freedom of expression highly, Hung said, referring to the withdrawal of the draft digital intermediary service act in September last year as an example.
The bill, which the government said aimed to increase the accountability and transparency of large online platforms, was shelved by the National Communications Commission due to fears that it would undermine freedom of expression.
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