Additionally, the European Union is set to host parliamentary elections that could influence the direction the 27-nation bloc takes on key policies such as immigration, while British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to host parliamentary elections later this year. He said he would hold elections. The country’s ruling Conservative Party is grappling with an economy heading toward recession.
And India is set to hold national elections for the Lok Sabha, a test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. A Washington Post investigation last year revealed how the Bharatiya Janata Party and affiliated nationalist groups have used social media to tighten their grip on voters.
In total, more than half of the world’s population lives in countries that will hold elections in 2024, creating an unprecedented challenge to the systems governments, technology companies, and researchers have built to protect democracies from disinformation. I am.
Although the Chinese government considers Taiwan to be part of its territory and is therefore the largest power interfering in its territory, it is also the largest force interfering in elections in other regions, especially the United States, this year. Experts said it was just one of them. For example, China has stepped up U.S. intelligence operations, leading to multiple takedowns of fake Facebook accounts. Meanwhile, Russia is trying to dissuade European countries from supporting Ukraine.
The rise in election interference comes as major social media platforms are cutting back on rules and enforcement, while tools to disguise the origin of messages have improved. Meanwhile, few countries that have called for interference in the past have been punished beyond sanctions against some Russian officials and executives.
Taiwan’s election is a “canary in the coal mine,” said Katie Harvath, a former public policy official at Meta and the owner of Facebook and Instagram. It’s a “premonition of what’s to come for the rest of the year.”
Taiwan has long been a testing ground for mainland propaganda efforts. Some researchers describe this information space as the most contested information space in the world, given the worsening military tensions.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) considers propaganda efforts directed at the islanders to be a central responsibility, and according to Anne-Marie Brady, ordinary Chinese citizens, including migrants, are also encouraged to help carry out this responsibility. There is a possibility that it will be requested. Professor at Canterbury University in New Zealand and Taiwan expert.
At the same time, experts say the Chinese Communist Party is becoming less direct as elections approach, wary of overreach.
“It could very well backfire,” said Alexander Dukalskis, author of “Making the World Safe for Dictators.” “People don’t want to be bullied and intimidated into telling them how to vote.”
Instead, the Chinese government uses proxies such as Taiwan’s business elite, who make money from trade with the mainland, and invites them on subsidized tours of its larger neighbor. Local Taiwanese officials, who are currently under investigation by local prosecutors, are also being targeted.
And instead of pushing their own messages, propagandists are encouraged to amplify real local conflicts and divisions, said Tim Niven, director of research at Taiwan’s Doublethink Lab.
Propaganda activists are also quick to follow local news, compiling clips of the most incendiary comments on talk shows or offering misleading summaries.
Generative artificial intelligence and other new tools are helping, Niven said.
A Taiwanese national security official told local media in Taipei that fake news videos with AI-generated hosts and voiceovers are being spread on YouTube, Instagram, and X.
Representatives for Mr. Mehta and Mr. X did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Thursday.
YouTube spokesman Javier Hernandez said the company removed a number of channels that violated content rules ahead of the Taiwan vote.
“We have a team dedicated to combating coordinated influence operations, and we are working around the clock in the lead-up to Taiwan’s elections,” he said.
Just last year, such an attempt was far less sophisticated. But Libby Lang, an analyst at misinformation tracking firm Graphika, said the technology has improved significantly in a short period of time, particularly in its ability to clone AI-generated images and audio. .
“This is a scary leap from where we were before,” Lange said. “If everything could be fake…there really is no sense of truth.”
All of these tactics, including the use of AI and local allies, issues and news, are difficult to counter and can be replicated around the world.
In a campaign exposed by Graphika last month, an account known as “Agitate Taiwan” on various social media platforms posted short videos on TikTok and YouTube criticizing candidates and policies of political parties other than the Nationalist Party. That way there will be less hostility with the mainland. These videos were posted simultaneously by approximately 800 Facebook accounts to various Taiwanese Facebook groups, including groups dealing with non-political topics.
Graphika was unable to determine whether the Agitate Taiwanese accounts on YouTube and TikTok were participating in the campaign, or whether they belonged to genuine users whose content was repurposed by the campaign. According to Graphika, the YouTube channel was suspended, but TikTok suspended the account because it could not determine whether TikTok was authentic, said the person, who asked not to be identified due to the risk of retaliation from parties spreading misinformation. It is said that it was left behind. .
As another example, Lange pointed out that a fake biography of Taiwan’s current president has spread like wildfire in recent days. “The Secret History of Tsai Ing-wen” According to Ari Ben Am, an analyst at Telemetry Data Labs, the message was sent via direct message by a WeChat account, and its content was displayed across all platforms. Some Facebook accounts posted electronic versions of the book multiple times.
Using multiple platforms means that effective defense requires coordination and broadly similar policies across those platforms. But while the number of platforms used in the US and other countries has increased, X and Facebook have lost their dominance. Foreign agents and homegrown conspiracy theorists often start on loosely moderated platforms like 4chan and Telegram, planting seeds that viewers can then replant on more mainstream platforms.
Representatives for 4chan and Telegram did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Thursday.
Meta and Google rescinded policies against election fraud lies and stopped punishing politicians who spread fraud. X reinstated numerous far-right accounts, destroyed programs designed to authenticate high-profile users, and failed to stop the flow of hate speech and misinformation.
Coordinating with Company X’s dwindling executive staff is now more difficult than ever, according to six people who have teamed up with them in the past.
Taiwan’s biggest problems are those that affect the political situation in the United States and other countries. In other words, the issue of foreign interference has become politicized. Although the Nationalist Party tends to downplay the seriousness of the problem, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party continues to point out the issue.
“When you can talk about interference when the Chinese Communist Party is demonizing the Democratic Progressive Party and promoting the Nationalist Party, it becomes politicized,” New Zealand’s Brady said.
The United States has seen similar developments, with many Republican lawmakers rejecting accusations of Russian interference even after federal indictments of Russian spies and contractors who ran a network of fake social media accounts. The story is unfolding.
Even if the Chinese counterfeit is betrayed by technological means, “it depends on your inclination whether you believe it or not,” Niven said.
Martin Wendigensen, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, analyzed more than 10,000 YouTube videos on several channels since June and found that “The Democratic Party is almost always described negatively and in denial.” (corruption, incompetence, stagnation), but the reverse is also true.” For the National Party. ”
Wendigensen said the channels are owned by wealthy Taiwanese business owners who make most of their income on the mainland.
Brady and other analysts said local governments and citizen fact-finding groups have done a good job of condemning interference as much as possible and educating the public. But they warn that the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts could make a difference in a close election.
Similar to Russia’s approach in past US elections, the main message is that the Democratic Progressive Party is recklessly pursuing independence and risking war, but does not need to persuade a majority to succeed. Rather, it should cause division and “social uncertainty and anxiety,” Brady said. “When people feel fear, they don’t want to take risks.”
Furthermore, Taiwan, unlike the United States, has seen tech giants “under all pressure from the world. [U.S. elections] Yes,” said Rose Jackson, director of the Atlantic Council’s Democracy and Technology Initiative. “They don’t feel pressured to invest resources to get the rest of the world right.”
Even in the United States, these companies can’t catch all the surge of organized and inauthentic propaganda, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find anything to turn back on.
For example, some social networks say the U.S. government has stopped warning about foreign disinformation campaigns on its platforms, reversing a long-standing strategy to combat international interference in U.S. politics.
The changes come after a federal judge ruled that the Biden administration and tech platforms had been forced to work together in the wake of a lawsuit alleging that the White House’s coordination with industry to weed out falsehoods about the coronavirus and the 2020 election amounted to unlawful censorship. This happened in response to restrictions on communication. That matter, Missouri vs. Bidenis currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has suspended the lower court’s restrictions while it considers the issue.
Meanwhile, disinformation researchers are tracking online falsehoods as House Republican investigations continue, with House Republicans colluding with the Biden administration to request documents and testimony from academics about their interactions with tech companies and the government. It is reevaluating its efforts to warn tech companies. Suppressing the voices of American users online.
“While it may be true that companies are preparing a lot, it may also be true that the sheer number of elections taking place this year will test even the best-resourced teams. ” Harvath said. Head of international affairs at technology consulting company Duco. “Everyone is trying to navigate all these new variables that didn’t exist.”