Fake News, Real Effects
Social media dramatically magnifies an already severe problem
Sad news last week as a Taiwan diplomat in Japan killed himself over fake news claims:
Su’s death happened just a day before the heads of Taiwan’s six offices in Japan are scheduled to meet in Osaka to review the behavior of officials stationed in the country who have been criticized for their handling of Taiwanese nationals’ requests for assistance during the closure of Kansai International Airport last week.
The Chinese media spread fake news saying that it had sent buses to Kansai International Airport to take care of tourists stranded there during the typhoon. It added that Taiwanese had been permitted to board the buses if they said they were Chinese. This claim caused a firestorm of criticism aimed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and its representatives in Japan.
Initially Taiwan media, including Apple Daily and Sanlih, spread the fake story, though they later corrected themselves. Criticism continued unabated despite the fact that netizens had exposed the news as fake within a couple of hours. This social pressure drove Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠), director-general of the Osaka branch of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, to commit suicide.
Anecdotal reports from friends and acquaintances in Taiwan suggest that this fake news has gained wide traction and many still believe it even though it has been revealed to be false. The PTT system at NTU, the nation’s most influential internet bulletin board (BBS) system and widely used by the young who prefer its simplicity and anonymity to the complexity of more modern platforms, has been forced to suspend acceptance of new users in the confusion over the fake news.
The Taiwan government has established a task force to monitor fake news created by Chinese content farms. The Taipei Times reported:
The Chinese government is using online content farms to create fake news to manipulate Taiwanese public opinion and polarize society, the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau said, citing a bureau analysis of several online articles that have stirred controversy in Taiwan.
The bureau has established a big-data and public opinion task force to monitor the spread of fake news on social media on instructions from the National Security Bureau, it said on Friday.
President Tsai also called on the public to stop believing and spreading fake news this week in campaign rallies in southern Taiwan.
Taiwan’s already highly partisan and sensationalized media and social media environment is an easy mark for fake news. Moreover, we are two months from the midterm elections, and the island is flooded with politically slanted commentary and outright false claims across every media platform. Indeed, it was alleged that the real reason the PPT closed itself to new users was because it does not want further inflows of fake news aimed at the upcoming election.
Such news succeeds because it appeals to already established social identities, and belief remains even when the news is exposed as fake. The technology of the internet makes it easy to spread fake news with the click of a SHARE button.
Often overlooked in these conversations is the ubiquitous LINE group. LINE penetration in Taiwan is extremely high, and numerous Taiwanese belong to LINE groups. These groups are usually innocuous, organized around activities like elementary school alumni associations, or shopping, or recipes, or birdwatching, but they are key vectors of fake news. It seems that in many groups there’s that one guy who spams the group with political news, all of it slanted and much of it fake.
These LINE groups are among the many social media platforms that overlap with the social media groups of Taiwanese-American communities in the US. The internet means that there is no distance between Taiwan and the US: fake news from Chinese content farms can spill over to the US Chinese language communities at the click of a button. From there, it is but a short jump into the Chinese language media — heavily influenced by Beijing in any case — and, on occasion, the US media.
No meme or news piece that asks to be shared should ever be shared.
This goes in both directions. Taiwanese-Americans need to exercise extra vigilance. No meme or news piece that asks to be shared should ever be shared. Moderators need to pay close attention to news pieces and vet them carefully. Organizers need to be pro-active in removing people spamming online groups.
At the same time, Taiwanese-Americans can be key exposers of fake news and validators of real news. Taiwanese-Americans with links to local online groups in Taiwan should be quick to spot, identify, report, and call out fake news.
Remember, both Taiwan itself and the overseas Taiwanese communities are going to be targets of fake news from China. Even if Taiwanese overseas think they are out of the game, China does not regard them so. If you are running a social media group, network, or platform, it’s time to start thinking about policies and actions to handle the coming onslaught.
If you are running a social media group, network, or platform, it’s time to start thinking about policies and actions to handle the coming onslaught.
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