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From beef noodles to bots: Taiwan’s factcheckers on fighting Chinese disinformation and ‘unstoppable’ AI | Taiwan | The Guardian

theguardian.com · 1,121 words · saved by 1 readers

Taiwan is the target of more disinformation from abroad than any other democracy, according to University of Gothenburg study C harles Yeh’s battle with disinformation in Taiwan began with a bowl of beef noodles. Nine years ago, the Taiwanese engineer was at a restaurant with his family when his mother-in-law started picking the green onions out of her food. Asked what she was doing, she explained that onions can harm your liver. She knew this, she said, because she had received text messages telling her so. Yeh was puzzled by this. His family had always happily eaten green onions. So he decided to set the record straight. He put the truth in a blog post and circulated it among family and friends through the messaging app Line. They shared it more broadly, and soon he received requests from strangers asking to be connected to his personal Line account. “There wasn’t much of a factchecking concept in Taiwan then, but I realised there was a demand. I could also help resolve people’s pro

A person uses her mobile phone outside a restaurant in Taipei. Experts blame China for much of the disinformation aimed at Taiwan. Photograph: Ann Wang/Reuters View image in fullscreen A person uses her mobile phone outside a restaurant in Taipei. Experts blame China for much of the disinformation aimed at Taiwan. Photograph: Ann Wang/Reuters Taiwan This article is more than 2 years old From beef noodles to bots: Taiwan’s factcheckers on fighting Chinese disinformation and ‘unstoppable’ AI This article is more than 2 years old Taiwan is the target of more disinformation from abroad than any ot

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