More than 90 percent of those polled in a recent survey reported having encountered “disinformation,” the Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) said on Friday.
The TFC said that it conducted the survey as part of an investigation into the prevalence of disinformation and the effectiveness of fact-checking systems.
Its findings were similar to those in a 2019 University of Gothenburg study that found that Taiwan was the country most affected by disinformation, and that 74.5 percent of Taiwanese polled had encountered disinformation at some point in the year before.
People who reported encountering disinformation on a regular basis accounted for 32.6 percent in that study, while only 8 percent said they had not encountered disinformation.
Half of the respondents said they made use of fact-checking systems when they encountered questionable information, and 70 percent said that limiting disinformation should take precedence over protecting free speech, the TFC survey showed.
More than half of people polled said that the media, politicians and foreign forces were sources of the disinformation they encountered, 85 percent encountered disinformation on the Internet, and the remainder said they encountered it through television, radio, or print publications, the survey showed.
The majority, 93 percent, said that disinformation had a “serious impact” on society, saying that it affects the credibility of the media and politicians, deteriorates trust in the government, harms interpersonal relationships and damages democratic institutions.
Disinformation is often spread among social groups, the TFC said, adding that 65.9 percent of people polled said they discussed what they perceived as disinformation with close friends and relatives, while 76.4 percent said they would caution friends and relatives to avoid spreading what they believed was disinformation.
About half of the respondents, 54.1 percent, said they used fact-checking systems, and 60.6 percent said they trust such services run by non-governmental organizations, it said, adding that this shows progress on tackling the issue, although there is room for improvement.
The majority of respondents said that the government and technology companies should act to curb the spread of disinformation online.
More than 90 percent said that the government should introduce legislation that holds social media companies responsible for tackling disinformation via automated mechanisms.
TFC chairman Hu Yuan-huei (胡元輝) said that Taiwan should examine such laws in the EU, the UK and other democracies, and follow their lead when writing legislation to combat online disinformation.
The TFC collected 1,200 responses by telephone from Jan. 10 to 16, and 1,216 responses online from Jan. 10 to 13.
It did not provide the poll’s margin of error.
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