The final session on this second day of the IAMCR 2025 conference in Singapore is on mis- and disinformation, and begins with Chia-Shin Lin. His focus is on misinformation during Taiwanese elections, which he says is prevalent in part due to the ‘funny’ relationship between Taiwan and mainland China. This is part of a broader ‘China factor’ of political pressure and interference in other countries’ political processes, and similar to the way that Russia and other problematic regimes also interfere elsewhere. How do older Taiwanese voters perceive the circulation of misinformation through instant messaging, then, especially during the 2024 presidential election?
The China factor includes the use of economic power to create political influence; the propagation and promotion of pro-China perspectives; and the commercialisation and outsourcing of self-censorship by the targets of such efforts. In Taiwan, these efforts are designed to favour pro-Beijing, pro-unification candidates and undermine the sovereign Taiwanese government. Additionally, messaging also seeks to enhance skepticism towards the US, in order to undermine US-Taiwan relations.
Increasingly, this also involves AI-fabricated content, integrating with misleading narratives and coordinated social media behaviour. During then 2024 election, this claimed, for instance, that the Taiwanese president had an illegitimate child; additionally, framing also highlighted the threat of war.
How are exposure to misinformation and belief in such misinformation related, then? Does this lead to the sharing of problematic content? The present study conducted an online experiment with three frames (a war frame, an illegitimate affairs, frame, and a control frame), with some 300 voters over 60. This showed that a higher level of US skepticism led to lower beliefs in misinformation; and higher levels of exposure to PRC propaganda led to greater belief in problematic information (I think – this is very rapid and not entirely clear). Greater awareness of the China factor might mitigate these trends.
