The recent “get on the bus” dance challenge went viral across Taiwan within days. Last month, an artificial intelligence (AI) face-swap tool swept social media. Short-form videos are already traveling further and faster than any other medium, rapidly becoming today’s most potent vehicle of infiltration.
Short-form video content, or “reels,” has transformed daily life. Increasingly, people no longer reach for a book before bed, but instead scroll through endless clips — perhaps intending to wind down, but often losing an hour in the blink of an eye. Algorithms trap users in loops, serving up the same kind of content repeatedly.
What makes reels so powerful? The answer is simple. On the other side of the screen are not just streamers and editors, but a myriad of psychological studies and professional teams that know how to manipulate. Reels are geared to target innate psychological weaknesses. Instant gratification with each and every swipe; easy-to-copy trend formats that anyone can jump in on; repeated pop-ups that create the illusion of popularity. This is not just entertainment, it is a curated form of control.
According to a Graphika report last year, more than 15,000 fake accounts linked to China were identified on Taiwanese social media platforms. These accounts are not just posting casually. They generate and repost material at a high frequency and flood comment sections in such a way that makes their ideas appear mainstream, even unquestionable. They manufacture an illusion of consensus and employ appeal-to-fear tactics to wear down the resolve of those who disagree. When these messages are packaged as trending reels, they begin to erode people’s will to resist.
Currently, Taiwan’s response only goes as far as taking down the accounts in question, which is like trying to contain a sandstorm with a broom. In comparison, the EU’s Digital Services Act requires platforms to publicize their algorithms’ general parameters and undergo external auditing of black-box recommendation mechanisms, for transparency.
Taiwan lacks such a system. Today, our phones are a battlefield, and the reactive whack-a-mole approach for disinformation simply cannot keep up.
Media literacy among the public, of course, is important. Thinking for a few seconds and checking the sources behind clickbait titles before reposting is the first line of defense. However, the issue is ultimately systemic. If this state of affairs continues, then no matter how cautious people might be, it would always be the fingers behind the algorithm pulling the strings.
The real concern is not how many people joined the latest dance challenge, but that the government is too consumed by dealing with the chaos in the legislature to act.
Reels have transformed how people receive information day-to-day. The deeper crisis is that Taiwan remains empty-handed in its defenses.
Chang Shang-yang is a farmer.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
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