00:00From social media influencers to AI-generated content, information warfare is top of mind
00:05here in Taiwan.
00:06And now, with more tools at their disposal, authoritarian governments are going all out
00:10to turn the story in their favor.
00:12At a forum in Taipei, experts warn it's not just Taiwan in their sights.
00:15They say countries like Russia and China flood social media with their own narratives, using
00:19AI to spread them far and wide.
00:21Very often these are the same articles, simply translated into different languages, and this
00:27huge amount of content is generated not for people, but to get into the results of AI
00:33checkbots.
00:35One of the companies researchers say is engaging in this kind of activity is China's state-backed
00:39Golexi.
00:40They say it's completely automated the misinformation and disinformation process, spreading pro-China
00:44messages around the world.
00:46And they say these efforts, and Beijing's targeting of Taiwanese influencers, lay the
00:50groundwork for its attempts to sway public opinion.
00:53China is building this infrastructure, it knows that influencers are important, and it's
00:57trying to train and attract Taiwanese influencers, which is all about the whole of society approach
01:04that China now has toward its external propaganda influence and all of this.
01:09And those efforts seem to be growing.
01:11In 2025 alone, Taiwan identified 45,000 fake social media accounts, spreading more than 2.3
01:17million pieces of disinformation, much of it aimed at lowering confidence in Taiwan's democracy.
01:22And as more people turn to social media to get their news, what's already a big problem
01:26could get even worse.
01:28They start to use those existing domestic issues because they know the democratic society has
01:34its own existing conflicts and polarization.
01:39So they choose to trigger people's anger using those half-faults, half-truths, lack of
01:46context content in order to make us distrust each other, making us think democracy is useless.
01:53And these misinformation campaigns are not just limited to the voting public.
01:57The country's troops are also at high risk.
01:59Videos and other online content persuading troops not to fight in a potential Taiwan-straight
02:03conflict have become a big worry for defense officials, especially as cases of Chinese
02:08spying in Taiwan's military spike.
02:10Experts at the Taipei Forum say there are several ways democracies like Taiwan can push back
02:14against information warfare.
02:15They suggest things like funding citizen journalism and better educating people about misinformation
02:20to proactively counter authoritarian infiltration.
02:23Andy Shueh and Larry Siano for Taiwan Plus.
02:25Everyone else is moving away from Taiwan.
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