Fighting disinformation
After watching the TV series Zero Day (零日攻擊), a drama that focuses on several scenarios Taiwan might face leading up to the first day of a Chinese attack, the chaos left me with a strong sense of deja vu — the disorder depicted in the show is the same kind we see play out daily in the news, on social media and in group chats among elderly people.
Information warfare, fake news and media manipulation are no longer just side effects at the edge of war — they are the primary battlefield. The most lethal attacks are not from missiles, but ones that cause people to turn against one another, sow distrust, disguise lies as the truth and make allies look like enemies.
Our democracy is eroding — gradually being chipped away by our bad habits of mindlessly spreading false rumors and repeatedly choosing to remain in our own echo chambers. Faced with artificial intelligence-generated disinformation, online manipulation and the blurring line between news and entertainment, government agencies have been slow to respond, civic education is a vacuum and our line of defense is nonexistent. While some of the chaos comes from the enemy, much of it also comes from within — some people take advantage of freedom of speech to manipulate public opinion, while others spread pro-China disinformation online while claiming to love Taiwan.
Zero Day is like a mirror reflecting the weakest nerves of Taiwanese society. If we refuse to face this silent war, the day would come where “zero day” is no longer a part of fiction, but of our future.
Tao Huo
Taipei
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