Taipei [Taiwan], October 19 : Academics in Taiwan have urged the government to establish artificial intelligence (AI) content filtering systems and strengthen public media literacy as Beijing increasingly employs low-cost generative AI tools to spread disinformation ahead of local elections, according to a report by the Taipei Times.
The report said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) held a forum on Chinese election interference, bringing together experts to examine Beijing's tactics and discuss appropriate countermeasures.
DPP Secretary-General Hsu Kuo-yung said China was interfering in Taiwan's elections by circulating information that was "30 per cent true and 70 per cent false". He called on experts to examine how Beijing uses AI and big data to influence public perceptions and shape political outcomes.
Yeh Yao-yuan, a professor and chair of international studies at the University of St Thomas in Houston, said China's short-term objective was to influence election results, while its long-term goal was to deepen social divisions and undermine public trust in democracy.
According to the Taipei Times, Yeh said Beijing was using disinformation, public opinion manipulation and social network infiltration alongside military pressure to influence Taiwanese voters. These tactics, he said, seek to push people towards political decisions in an environment increasingly saturated with unreliable information.
Yeh also claimed that the US government discovered in July that China had stolen 220 million US voter registration records. He warned that analysing such data could enable Beijing to identify region-specific issues and tailor influence campaigns to target particular groups of voters, underscoring the need for stronger safeguards in Taiwan.
Shih Hsin University communications professor Liu Yu-hsi said Beijing had increasingly turned to AI-generated text and images to produce disinformation at scale. As an example, Liu pointed to Chinese immigrants who had registered as candidates for borough chief positions this year, saying many of their online campaign graphics contained numerous errors.
Arthur Wang, secretary-general of the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association, said China's broader objective in interfering in Taiwan's elections was to undermine the island's sovereignty.
Wang described an evolution in Beijing's tactics, saying China had previously relied on verbal attacks and military threats before turning to economic inducements in 2008 and placing greater emphasis on disinformation between 2016 and 2018. Its current approach, he said, increasingly involves targeted election interference intended to intensify divisions and antagonism within Taiwanese society.
To counter these activities, Wang urged the government to develop AI databases and content filtering systems while expanding media literacy education. He said the public should understand how AI could be used to spread misleading information and learn to identify and verify suspicious content.
DPP China Affairs Director Wu Chun-chih also advised people to exercise caution when encountering information from unknown sources or content designed to provoke strong emotional reactions. He recommended checking the original sources and cross-referencing claims with reputable media outlets.
The experts' recommendations, as cited by the Taipei Times, highlight growing concerns in Taiwan over the use of AI-driven disinformation to influence elections, deepen political divisions and weaken confidence in democratic institutions.