YouTube has emerged as a new battleground for opposing political camps to spread disinformation in the run-up to Jan. 11’s presidential election, said Wang Tai-li (王泰俐), a professor in National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Journalism.
In a letter to the editor published yesterday in the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), Wang wrote that while Facebook and Twitter have closed accounts created to spread false information, YouTube has become the new battleground to disseminate false opinions and information.
The host of YouTube channel “Under the Foot of Yushan” (玉山腳下) was determined to be a China National Radio journalist by the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, Wang wrote.
Photo: Reuters
The host, “Sida,” spoke Mandarin with a Taiwanese accent, while his gestures and humorous take on politics made him appear to be much like other Taiwanese Internet celebrities, she said.
Even though the identity of the channel’s host was exposed on Oct. 22 and no new content has been uploaded to the channel since then, YouTube has not removed the false content, which means people can still access it, Wang said.
The channel is not an isolated case, as her research shows that more than 10 YouTube channels were created from August to last month that focused on attacking the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), she said.
Some of the channels, which have more than 10,000 subscribers, are actually content farms run by Chinese nationals and have simplified Chinese subtitles available, she said.
To make videos, the creators simply use photographs collected from news media and turn them into groundless accusations targeting specific politicians, Wang said.
People are more susceptible to information that is presented in audiovisual form, she said, adding that the popularity of such channels surged because they focus on major reports in the news.
“They combine false information and plausible images, repackage them and turning them into video clips. They take advantage of the myth that ‘to see is to believe’ by massively disseminating false information in the run-up to the election,” Wang said.
Even though international news media have extensively covered Beijing’s attempts to influence politics in Taiwan through false reports, most Taiwanese are unaware that it is happening here, she said.
Survey results show that many Taiwanese do not believe or are indifferent to the infiltration of false reports from sources outside the country, Wang said, adding that they think “fake news” is a tactic employed by politicians to hurt their opponents.
People’s indifference to the gravity of the issue has made YouTube a hotbed for rumors and a new battleground for false information about Jan. 11’s election, she said.
SPEEDING ELETRIC VEHICLES: Available without license requirements, the low-cost vehicles, especially if illicitly modified, can often reach a dangerous speed The government should crack down on illegal electric bicycles and scooters, the non-profit Consumers’ Foundation said on Friday, citing research on the potentially dangerous speed of the vehicles. Electric bicycles and lightweight electric scooters have gained popularity as they do not require registration and riders do not need licenses, the foundation said, adding that as many as 40 percent of them can reach speeds exceeding the legal limit of 25kph for non-licensed two-wheelers. Some consumers also purchased legal electric vehicles and modified them to reach higher speeds, it said. “If the government does not step up efforts to confiscate these
‘RELIABLE PARTNER’: US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar praised the ‘Taiwan model,’ saying that the nation brought its spirit to its COVID-19 response The first memorandum of understanding (MOU) on health cooperation between the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the US Department of Health and Human Services was yesterday signed at the Centers for Disease Control in Taipei. The memorandum was signed between the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US, by AIT Director Brent Christensen and Taiwan Council for US Affairs Chairperson Jen-ni Yang (楊珍妮). US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) witnessed the signing of the memorandum, designed to enhance the nations’
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday tweeted a welcome to Somaliland’s first representative to Taiwan, Mohamed Omar Hagi Mohamoud, who arrived on Friday. Mohamoud had “braved Chinese pressure” to take up his new post, Wu wrote. “The fact ‘sovereignty & friendship aren’t for sale’ deserves international recognition,” referring to a Somaliland media report earlier this month that Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi had rejected an offer by the Chinese government in exchange for ending its rapprochement with Taiwan. Wu also thanked the US National Security Council (NSC) for praising Taiwan-Somaliland ties. A council tweet on July 10 praised Taiwan
The Taipei City Government yesterday said that construction on the long-suspended Taipei Dome can resume immediately, after it approved a request by the project’s main contractor, Farglory Group. In a statement, the Taipei Construction Management Office said that after it on July 16 issued a new building permit, Farglory submitted revised design plans and an application to resume construction, which the office approved on Friday. Construction had been suspended on the dome, near the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Xinyi District (信義), for more than five years due to disagreements between the city and the company over the safety of some of
RSS