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    Taiwan Gets Tough On Disinformation Suspected From China Ahead Of Elections

    The government has fined people and media outlets for spreading false content, amid rising suspicion of mainland Chinese influence on the self-ruled island.
    by Emily Feng Dec 06, 2019 4 minutes
    Demonstrators protest against what they called "red media" influence in Taiwan during a rally against pro-China media in front of the president's office building in Taipei on June 23. With a presidential election in January, Taiwan is bracing for a new deluge of disinformation, much of it aimed at boosting Beijing's preferred politicians.

    Eye Central Television is a popular satirical TV news show in Taiwan, with an active social media presence. One day in April, it received a Facebook message from someone using the name Tina Hsu, but this was no ordinary fan.

    Hsu's Facebook profile was blank; it had just been created that morning.

    And Hsu made a surprising proposition: to buy EyeCTV's Facebook admin rights, taking control of the content shared with its more than 420,000 followers.

    At first, the political satire program, reminiscent of The Daily Show, played along. "We jokingly asked for 1.4 billion Taiwan dollars [$46 million]," says show writer Sandra Ho — requesting a number that matches the population of China, she notes.

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