Taiwan's early warning of the future of technology

President Biden recently said he has made it clear to Chinese President Xi Jinping that he does not want to see China meddling in Taiwan's upcoming elections on January 13. But for Taiwan, information interference is already happening and has never stopped. Taiwan's allies, social media platforms, and civil society groups need to deepen their cooperation with organizations doing the important work of defending Taiwan's information environment, support a multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance that allows Taiwan to ensure its interests are advanced, and work to prevent information operations ahead of elections. 2024. For the rest of the world, Taiwan is a harbinger of the spread of digital authoritarianism, and the need to defend against it, in 2024 and beyond.

Misinformation about Taiwan's elections is on the rise and shows the world what is coming

China's media operations in Taiwanese elections are well documented, and in 2020, provided clear examples to the world of how deep partisanship within the electoral system can be exploited, as well as how YouTube can be used to influence elections. Fact-checkers have worked hard since the election to debunk misinformation on topics ranging from imported eggs to nuclear wastewater that has played on long-standing concerns about food safety and health among Taiwanese people.

According to Taiwanese civil society database Cofacts, information disinformation in Taiwan has increased by 40 percent since last year. Because Taiwan is treated as a testing ground for the Chinese Communist Party's information manipulation campaigns, as Ukraine has historically been for Russia, the attack was notable. For example, China is changing the tone and distribution mechanisms of its influence campaigns to exploit more local interests and use platforms outside the mainstream. Microsoft and Mandiant have found that China's use of generative AI is becoming more widespread, sophisticated, and effective. Meta recently deleted more than seven thousand accounts — its largest takedown ever — linked to a Chinese influence operation. These metrics suggest that the presence of disinformation around Taiwan's elections will be greater and more insidious than we have previously seen.

Given that Taiwan's January 13 election marks the first on the calendar in what will be the biggest election year in history, it will test the mettle of governments, journalists, politicians, technology companies and the country's entire democratic system. Understanding how the onslaught of disinformation influences the views of the Taiwanese public will be crucial to Taiwan's elections, but as happened in 2020, the tactics and behaviors are likely to be replicated elsewhere, not only by the Chinese Communist Party, but also by other actors.

China's moves on internet governance put Taiwan and democracy at risk

Before the election, Taiwan was “fully prepared” when it came to cyberattacks, but faces a distinct disadvantage when it comes to defending internet rules and structures. Over the past decade, China has sought to reinvent the Internet by undermining the multi-stakeholder system of Internet governance upheld by democracies, while promoting a state-centered alternative to cyber sovereignty. Under the current system, there are a set of international forums that govern the Internet, allowing governments, companies, and civil society groups to work together in defining the rules that keep the Internet open, functioning, and interconnected. China's stated foreign policy is to rewrite these rules through “members-only” UN processes that include the Future Summit, the Global Digital Compact, and the World Summit on the Information Society Forum. Because Taiwan is not recognized as a sovereign state in the UN system, it is unable to participate in any of these processes, and has long faced China's efforts to exclude it. For China and its authoritarian allies, transferring Internet governance to a multilateral system of cyber sovereignty is the best path to tip the balance of power on the pipelines and policies that underpin the global Internet.

To allow China's dominance of Internet governance to succeed is to neglect one of the most important fronts in the fight against global digital authoritarianism. At the United Nations, it will be up to Taiwan's allies to ensure that Taiwan's important role in the global digital architecture remains at the center of the agenda in multilateral negotiations. Having Taiwan as an observer member of the Online Freedom Coalition allows other members to strengthen Taiwan's democratic resilience, while also serving as an example of the importance of all countries being able to determine their own digital futures. China's intention to impose digital hegemony over Taiwan turned into a stark reality in early 2023, when China was suspected of cutting underground cables providing internet services to a Taiwanese island. Taiwan's influential digital minister Audrey Tang Highlight These issues were raised at the Internet Governance Forum, the world's largest gathering of Internet experts and leaders, in Kyoto, Japan just a few weeks ago.

Taiwan's civic technology community is a bright spot and model

In the face of such challenges, Taiwan's civil society shines brightly. A special video on “The Taiwan Model” tells the story of how the Taiwanese government and civil society successfully navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, with facts, transparency and even fun playing as important a role in the country's COVID-19 response as lockdowns and vaccines. Members of the civic tech community have matured and developed their infrastructure in preparation for the upcoming presidential election, and honed their skills during Taiwan's 2022 local elections. Civic tech groups like Doublethink Lab, and the Open Culture Foundation, And the g0v hacker community are all leaders in countering Chinese influence and protecting Taiwan's information environment.

Tech companies in particular should make it a priority to work with civil society groups that actively track misinformation and fact-check media trends. Supporting and engaging with Taiwanese civil society is the only way businesses will be able to prepare for the onslaught of challenges they will face in the Taiwanese elections and the super-election year of 2024, especially given the combination of China's track record in exploiting social media platforms. The fact is that most technology companies have reduced their focus on trust and security over the past year.

Conclusion

For years, Taiwan has been at the center of US policy, but as geopolitical tensions escalate and threats to democracy spread globally, it is essential to prioritize and preserve the island nation's right to chart its own path in the 2024 elections and in the digital space. Digital autocrats are gaining more attention globally, expanding their efforts to contain Internet governance and reduce trust in electoral and civic institutions through media campaigns. Social media companies and governments need to work to protect Taiwan's information space, expand cooperation with civil society groups, and continue to represent Taiwan's interests in multi-stakeholder governance. Investing resources and attention in Taiwan's democracy and digital sanctity not only benefits the young nation; It also helps us understand the threats to democracy globally, and how we can use existing international governance models and the interoperable network to protect against the rising tide of authoritarianism.

Moira Whelan is director of the Democracy and Technology Team at the National Democratic Institute.