While more than 50 countries made congratulatory calls to president-elect William Lai (賴清德) over the weekend, with many international media outlets lauding Taiwan’s elections as “transparent,” an Internet celebrity seemed to hold a different view.
YouTuber Alisasa posted unverified videos from social media such as Douyin and TikTok, showing election staff counting the votes, seemingly “rigging” the results. As Alisasa was a supporter of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), her posts accusing the Central Election Commission of election corruption went viral among the “little grass” — the nickname for TPP supporters — triggering outrage and disgust.
When the Taiwan FactCheck Center investigated and cleared up the disinformation, Alisasa deleted the posts and apologized for her “bad choice of words” — but not for her actions. Even Ko said “it is impossible to conduct large-scale rigging in Taiwan.”
While Taiwan is a democracy that protects freedom of speech, there is an uncrossable line. Alisasa’s videos are a classic example of China’s relentless cognitive warfare against Taiwan. Before election day, similar blatantly flawed videos were circulating, meant to persuade Taiwanese that democracy is not worth safeguarding. With the presidential election over, vilifying the vote counting as “flawed” without evidence not only shows oneself to be a bad sport, but hurls a great insult at election workers, the public and election integrity.
The incident shows that Chinese apps such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu are young people’s go-to for information. Despite the US, EU and other pro-Taiwan forces expressing concern about information security hazards and China-friendly narratives, many Taiwanese use them.
Instead of adopting a black-and-white approach of banning these apps outright — which would only trigger protests and condemnation from app users — it would be wiser to allow these companies to set up branches in Taiwan so the government could use regulations and guidelines to oversee them and crack down on fake accounts and rein in disinformation.
As these apps’s algorithms tend to “mute” some voices while amplifying others, echo chambers and bubbles have been created, with young people seeing “filtered” information in line with their values and opinions without access to competing perspectives. As social media have long been the TPP’s forte, young people have favored it over other political parties, and the election results confirm this: It secured more than half the votes of people younger than 35.
This is a warning for the DPP, as it appears to have lost young people’s support to the TPP when compared with President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) young voter support in 2020. Unlike the generation that led the Sunflower movement, the present young generation is composed of people who want to maintain the “status quo,” are aloof on politics, and prioritize the economy and daily life. Being born into a democratic society, they are not as aware of democracy’s frailty as their predecessors, and they tend to demonstrate young people’s nature of supporting those who promise to defy established systems.
TV news pundit and Taiwan Thinktank chief strategist Wang Yi-chuan (王義川) said he received a letter from a young person. The author wrote about many day-to-day issues the DPP has not addressed, but which Ko promised to reform, such as inflation, high rent, low wages, and judicial and education reform.
Despite the DPP’s exceptional accomplishments in diplomacy and the broader economy, young people tend not to recognize those feats. In other words, they consider the government to be out of touch — one of the reasons a large percentage of them have turned their backs on the DPP.
The DPP needs to step up its soul-searching, address issues affecting young people and communicate with them. Only by rekindling that touch and rapport can it reclaim the passion and confidence it once ignited.
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