00:00The Control Yuan reports that TikTok is having a negative impact on children's learning and posing threats to their health.
00:07In your observation, is this a serious problem in Taiwan?
00:11Because TikTok design is rather optimized for engagement, not for well-being,
00:17which means they use short, fast-paced videos to keep kids hooked,
00:22but often at the cost of attention spans and is virtual to risky content.
00:28So I think in Taiwan especially, these risks are amplified because the youth adoption is much higher than other countries.
00:38And to be more specific, I think in terms of the collections, we should focus on three things really.
00:45First of all, to set enforceable age and privacy standards for minors.
00:50And second, to give independent researchers access to platform data so we can actually measure them,
00:57measure the harm especially.
00:59And third, to build school-based digital literacy and much stronger parental controls.
01:06TikTok not only collects personal data from Taiwanese users, but it also serves as a tool for China's information warfare.
01:13How high do you think its national security risk is?
01:16TikTok does pose a rather credible national security risk for Taiwan because it covers massive behavioral data collection with rather opaque algorithmic control
01:28by basically a company ultimately tied to a jurisdiction that regards Taiwan as a strategic target.
01:36And I think this is a very structural problem.
01:39And I think in more practical terms, that risk has two channels.
01:44First of all, I think informationally speaking, targeted recommendation systems can amplify narratives which are favorable to China.
01:53And this may demobilize or paralyze Taiwan's audiences during the crisis.
01:59And second, technically speaking, I think data about devices signals and the social networks can be useful in inference or exploitation operations.
02:11Compared to the US and the EU, Taiwan's approach to regulating TikTok seems more lenient.
02:17What is the main reason for this?
02:19Taiwan's reluctant position results from three interacting factors.
02:24First of all, democratic norms and a strong cultural commitment to free subscription make policymakers very worried of sweeping platform bans.
02:34That could basically be framed as censorship.
02:37So that's the first reason.
02:39And second, I think the domestic political calculus is too delicate.
02:44So majors that restrict popular consumer apps risk public backlash, especially among younger voters.
02:53And I think the third reason is that institutional capacity and Taiwan's legal pathway are quite different from the US and European Union.
03:02I think basically the US took a hotline approach.
03:06Either TikTok had to sell or face a ban.
03:09And basically that was backed by new laws and court battles.
03:13The EU went a rather different route.
03:16It relies on its Digital Services Act to push for transparency instead of kicking the platform out.
03:24And I think in Taiwan, as we have seen in the 2019 restriction on government devices, I think the current approach so far has been rather narrowly targeted cyber security measures rather than much more comprehensive interdictions.
03:41Freedom of speech is often used as a reason to oppose digital regulation.
03:46How should Taiwan balance it with regulating social media?
03:49I think in Taiwan, what we need is really a reinterpretation of free speech as a duty bearing rights, not just a balance between liberty and regulation.
04:00And that means protecting the information ecosystem that makes public discourse meaningful.
04:06So in this sense, I think free speech shouldn't be treated as an automatic vector against any kind of regulation.
04:13I think in a democracy, we need to protect not just the right to speak, but also the space that makes meaningful debate possible.
04:21And for Taiwan, I think that means having a more layered approach.
04:27Yes, we should protect individual expression, but we also need to we need to have clear rules against incitement, against foreign interference and against covert manipulation.
04:38And I think platforms have to do their part too.
04:44That means to be more transparent about how their algorithms work to protect minors by default and to make data available for legitimate investigations.
04:55And finally, I think beyond regulation, we need public education and a much stronger fact checking networks as well in order to help society build resilience.
05:05And I think government to make more effort to communicate with the public.
Comments