Young Taiwanese are consuming an increasing amount of Chinese content on TikTok, causing them to have more favorable views of China, a Financial Times report cited Taiwanese social scientists and politicians as saying.
Taiwanese are being exposed to disinformation of a political nature from China, even when using TikTok to view entertainment-related content, the article published on Friday last week said.
Fewer young people identify as “Taiwanese” (as opposed to “Chinese”) compared with past years, it wrote, citing the results of a survey last year by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation.
Nevertheless, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would be hard-pressed to enforce a ban on TikTok similar to the one implemented in the US, it cited DPP Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) as saying.
“The very moment a DPP government [moved] on this, we’d have the opposition at our throat accusing us of restricting free speech,” Shen said.
Shen is correct that a ban would be hard to impose. Even failing interference by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or the Taiwan People’s Party, a ban would alienate young Taiwanese voters. The Financial Times wrote that young TikTok users it spoke with dismissed as “nonsense” the idea they were being influenced. However, a study showed that TikTok users were significantly more likely to oppose Taiwan’s independence than those who do not use it.
International media reported that a large number of TikTok users in the US began using Red Note after the TikTok ban was announced. Some users who spoke to the media said that it was an act of rebellion against censorship, and against a government that they felt did not represent their interests.
This phenomenon is likely to be even more pronounced in Taiwan, as much of the content consumed by Taiwanese on TikTok is aimed at sowing distrust toward the DPP, and convincing Taiwanese that they are Chinese and that the unification of Taiwan and China is inevitable.
Moreover, TikTok as a facilitator of disinformation and cognitive warfare presents a much bigger threat to Taiwan than China’s previous efforts on that front. Previously, Beijing would employ Taiwanese content creators to help it spread disinformation in Taiwan through platforms like Facebook, Line and YouTube. However, the impact was limited, as it required Taiwanese to seek out specific content on platforms saturated with competing content.
With TikTok, Beijing has a platform of its own and can manipulate the algorithm to feed users whatever content it wants. TikTok is also shown to be more addictive than other platforms due to its short-video format and its manipulation of behavioral psychology to give users a sense of instant gratification.
Taiwanese authorities must be creative to tackle this threat, as an outright ban is unlikely to solve the problem. Aside from the backlash that a ban would cause, users could simply use virtual private networks to spoof their location using a proxy servee.
One option would be to shadow ban Taiwanese on TikTok by intercepting communications at the Internet service provider (ISP) level. Users would think their comments were being ignored, the algorithm would not reach them and the user would get bored and stop using it. Another option would be to filter TikTok traffic at the ISP level, having its content fact-checked by artificial intelligence. Content deemed to be disinformation could be blocked, or users could be sent warnings through watermarks superimposed on the content or by push notifications.
Finally, Taiwan could fight fire with fire, flooding TikTok with pro-Taiwan independence content, or content that portrays human rights abuses in China.
Banning TikTok is not likely an option for Taiwan, but neither is allowing the service to operate unimpeded. The government must explore options to tackle this threat.
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