Event Overview
The uOttawa Information Integrity Lab hosted the "Building Democratic Resiliency Against Disinformation: Taiwan Elections and Beyond" conference on April 12th in partnership with the U.S. Embassy and the Taiwanese Economic and Cultural Office.
The conference highlighted the threats Taiwan has faced to its electoral processes and to its society more broadly. Taiwanese adversaries have strategically employed disinformation to sow fear and discord among Taiwanese citizens through false narratives promoted by botnets, PRC press, and social media influencers operating via platforms like TikTok, Douyin and YouTube.
The conference also underscored how Taiwanese civil society has responded to the relentless disinformation through factual information campaigns, leveraging technologies like AI chatbots and developing educational initiatives to foster critical thinking within the Taiwanese citizenry. These efforts have been largely grassroots-driven relying on volunteerism and crowdfunding. Taiwanese civil society has vigorously maintained its independence to counter perceptions of government influence and build trust. This whole of society response reflects a deep-rooted determination to preserve Taiwanese sovereignty and resist externalpressures interference.
Driven by this determination, and their impressive technical expertise , Taiwanese society has proven highly successful in insulating its society against various multi model threats, protecting its democratic institutions and the integrity of its information. Taiwan’s remarkable resilience serves as inspiration for democracies around the world as they build up their own capacity in the year of elections. Participants at the event included representatives of governments, academia, think tanks and the diplomatic community in Canada, who probed lessons learned from Taiwan's experience and their possible application to forthcoming democratic events around the world.
Special thank you to all our panelists and participants for their engagement, contributions, and ideas.