Organization warns against post-election Chinese disinformation

Taipei, Jan. 19 (CNA) China will continue to play a part in magnifying conflicts in Taiwanese society following the Jan. 13 elections, and artificial intelligence (AI) will make such action difficult to counter, Doublethink Lab warned at an event held in Taipei on Friday.

Doublethink Lab, an organization focusing on enhancing digital defenses, said during a presser about foreign interference in Taiwan's election, that China had focused on rifts in Taiwanese society before December 2023 and attempted to magnify them.

Such rifts include the imported egg controversy, the #MeToo movement, which involved several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians, and the controversy surrounding Taiwan's first Indigenous Defense Submarine, according to Doublethink Lab.

It added that as AI development continues, such measures will be difficult to counter.

Closer to the elections, Beijing spread rumors that Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) had an illegitimate child and that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had secretly sent people to meet with Hong Kong independence advocates, according to Doublethink Lab.

It added that those rumors were generated through fake social media accounts, instead of those controlled by the Chinese government, and that AI had been used to spread the disinformation.

It added that fake personal accounts were likely used because they were harder to trace, and also because it was more difficult for Taiwanese people to determine the source of the information, whereas individuals would be more likely to dismiss information from accounts related to the Chinese authorities.

The organization said China attempted to affect the outcome of Taiwan's presidential election by focusing on the moral flaws of DPP politicians and claiming that Taiwan's economy would perform worse if the DPP won.

Doublethink Lab also highlighted how the Chinese government had suspended tariff concessions on several Taiwanese imports under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, including petrochemical products such as propylene and paraxylene, which it said was an attempt to influence the election.

The organization warned that China will continue to magnify conflicts in Taiwanese society in the future and that it will use more platforms and methods to generate disinformation.

Meanwhile, Doublethink Lab also found through two surveys conducted in January 2024 that people of different political affiliations were deeply polarized in their views on several issues, but that more than half of those surveyed said they believed in the democratic system and trusted Taiwan's electoral process.