Meta’s withdrawal of funding for anti-disinformation measures has left Taiwan’s largest fact-checker group in an “existential crisis,” Nikkei Asia reported yesterday.
Taiwan FactCheck Center — established in 2018 to counter online fake news — relies on private donations to avoid conflicts of interest with the government, the Japanese outlet said in a report.
Meta accounts for nearly half of the group’s revenue and Google makes up for more than 30 percent, it said.
Photo: EPA
The organization’s future was cast into doubt after Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg in January said that the social media giant would end its partnership with US-based fact-checkers in a move that critics said was a concession to US President Donald Trump, the Nikkei said.
Trump is a vocal critic of fact-checking, which he has decried as a form of censorship.
Facebook temporarily banned Trump’s account over unfounded allegations of electoral fraud he made amid riots in Washington to overturn the presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Shortly following Trump’s second inauguration, Zuckerberg announced that Meta would
suspend funding for fact-checkers, saying that they have been “too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created.”
“With the way things stand, our contract with Meta could expire in January 2026,” Taiwan FactCheck Center CEO Eve Chiu (邱家宜) told the Nikkei.
“Artificial intelligence [AI] continues to evolve and disinformation is becoming more sophisticated, so if funding is cut off, we will be in a critical situation,” she said.
Citing Sweden-based V-Dem Institute, the Nikkei said Taiwan is the largest target of disinformation operations in the world, most of which stems from China.
Meta’s fact-checking partners formerly reported posts containing untrue or misleading information to Facebook in exchange for a fee, a funding source that has been severed since Zuckerberg’s announcement.
Taiwan FactCheck Center told the Nikkei that Meta had not replied to the organization’s requests for continued funding.
The group is seeking financial support from Taiwanese private enterprises, but their capacity to replace Meta remains an open question, the report said.
The news comes as Taiwan is set to hold elections for local government offices in November next year, which experts fear is to be targeted by a growing surge in disinformation exacerbated by AI.
The National Security Bureau in January said there was a 62 percent increase in reports of controversial or misinformation, from 1.33 million cases in 2023 to 2.16 million last year.
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