False information in Taiwan spread by foreign governments has increased from 2011, Sweden-based academic Staffan Lindberg said in Taipei yesterday, adding that it is important for media to fact check stories to counter the trend.
A political science professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Lindberg was invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to talk about misinformation in Taiwan based on exerience as director of global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem): Global Standards, Local Knowledge.
The project involves nearly 3,000 experts across 180 countries. Its headquarters are at the university’s V-Dem Institute.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
In their research, Lindberg said they found that Taiwan had been besieged by the most false information disseminated by foreign governments in the past few years, followed by Latvia, Bahrain, Qatar, Hungary, Yemen, Kosovo and Syria, as well as other countries.
False information can be defined as information “factually or documentarily untrue,” but some gray areas exist on the true-untrue spectrum, he said.
The amount of misinformation in Taiwan increased in about 2011, he said, adding that China is a “possible suspect” due to its authoritarian control of information.
Taiwan’s government cannot just shut down the Internet, yet the Chinese and Russian governments can, making democratic countries more susceptible to misinformation attacks, he said.
Regarding the level of government dissemination of false information domestically and abroad, China is placed in the “extremely often” category; Taiwan and Japan in the “rarely” category; and the US between the “half the time” and “rarely” categories, he said.
Lindberg said reporters should work harder to check facts before publishing news, especially as social media has become a major source.
There are also fake scientific journals publishing unreliable papers to sway public opinion about issues such as climate change, he said, advising journalists to check with third-party experts before citing a paper.
Governments should work with social media firms to keep false information from circulating, he added.
On Thursday, Lindberg also gave a speech at National Taiwan University’s Department of Political Science.
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,