With false information growing daily on platforms like Facebook and LINE, Taiwan's Ministry of Education has drawn up an action plan that targets specific age groups. But what do NGOs and tech companies think of the plan?

By Lai Yun (賴昀)
Translated by Hon Yee Tong

This piece first appeared in Watchout (沃草) and is translated and reprinted under a creative commons licence.

Are you bombarded with fake news on Facebook and LINE? On December 10, 2019, the Ministry of Education convened a forum on the topic, invited representatives from academia and tech companies to talk about it.

During the forum, the Ministry talked up its plans to boost media literacy in schools and society at large, as a means to fight back against the deluge of false information online. Huang Yueh-li (黃月麗), director of lifelong learning at the Ministry, said that the government took stock of all school levels, teacher training and community resources in formulating the government's action plan.

Some of the Ministry's programming efforts include a series of PSAs, a series of youth events on what makes good governance, and events that promote good digital hygiene. The Ministry is also hosting events aimed at senior citizens and families, and has put on over 500 activities in 22 community centres around Taiwan.

Huang said these efforts are part of an action plan that launched in July 2019. The Ministry hopes to establish a policy communication platform that combines input from cross-governmental meetings, local governments and NGOs. This way, the Ministry can understand diverse voices and get better advice.

Controlling false information and promoting media literacy have become topics of great concern to both the public and the government. (Photo by Lai Yun)

The Ministry also set up a one-stop web portal for media literacy, and hopes to expand it by integrating resources from the public and other government departments. The Ministry's goal is to expand media literacy amongst all age groups and cultivate critical thinking skills so that the public will not take false information at face value. Huang hopes the Ministry can tap into the expertise of other ministries, local governments and civil society to build a communication and collaboration platform so that the Ministry can understand diverse perspectives and get advice.

She quoted the chairman of the Taiwan FactCheck Center, Lai Ting-Ming (賴鼎銘) in her remarks: “Do not treat media literacy as an activity, but as a movement.” She also commended the efforts of civil society in fighting false information. "media literacy must start with oneself, and the most important factor is whether you put your heart into it.”

Huang Yueli, director of the Department of Lifelong Education under the Ministry of Education, stresses that “the most important part is the will to start media literacy on your own.” (Photo by Lai Yun)

Facebook and Twitter have long taken a light-touch approach towards content regulation, and only step in after the community reports an incident, said Tsai Su-chen (蔡素貞), principal of Songshan Community College. But the challenges brought by disinformation today far exceeds those in the past. In 2004, Tsai worked with local community colleges and NGOs to push for media reform, and called on Taiwanese to turn off their tv sets for one week. It was called "screen-free week", and was modeled after a similar initiative in the US.

Now, Tsai believes that community colleges must play a greater role in cultivating media literacy. He is calling on Taiwanese to "guard Taiwan together, and make the fight against disinformation a national movement."

Tsai points to a recent study conducted by LINE corporation on disinformation in Taiwan. In a survey of 1,000 LINE users, a quarter of respondents who received false information from other users proactively fact-checked the message, and send back the correct information to the sender; another nine percent of survey respondents said they suspected receiving false information on LINE, but did nothing to check the veracity of the message. Tsai says this happens because users do not know how to fact-check, nor do they know how to report malicious content.

Over the years, in addition to offering lectures on media literacy, there are efforts like Public Television Network's "PeoPo" online journalism platform that help train citizen journalists, open up the public's perspective on matters, and help users avoid being blindly led by false reports.

Tsai Su-chen, principal of Songshan Community College, calls for “a common defense of Taiwan and a national movement to stop fake messages.” (Photo by Lai Yun)

Facebook Taiwan’s manager of public policy, Chen I-ju (陳奕儒), says the company is also working hard to raise digital literacy. Content that violates Facebook’s community guidelines will be removed, and content that violates local laws will be hidden from users' view.

Chen said the company's policy is to allow users to build communities where “everyone can speak.” False information does not violate the company’s community guidelines, and only content that causes imminent harm to individuals, suppresses voters, or results in undemocratic behaviour will be removed. To minimise the likelihood of harmful content going viral, Facebook relies on third-party fact-checking organisations to verify the authenticity of content on the platform. They then assess whether the content is true or false, whether it is misleading, or whether it is a mixture of truth and falsehood. Facebook’s News Feed sorts content based on these assessment results, so that even though false information remains on the platform, it has a much lower probability of being seen and shared.

In addition, if a third-party fact-checking organisation finds out that the content is problematic after it is shared by a user, Facebook sends a reminder to the user. Since November 2019, all election advertisements on Facebook must disclose the identity of the buyer, the target demographics, and the amount spent on advertising.

Improving the public’s digital literacy is something Facebook is also working on, says Facebook Taiwan public policy manager Chen I-ju. (Photo by Lai Yun)

LINE’s advisor for Public Policy, Yang Mu-hsuan (楊牧軒), said the company launched the “LINE Digital Responsibility Plan” in March 2019 and is committed to countering disinformation and raising media literacy. LINE is already working with local fact-checking NGOs in Taiwan (including Rumor & Truth, MyGoPen, CoFacts, and the Taiwan FactCheck Center) to establish an official information verification platform that allows users to verify suspect news reports. LINE classifies reports by how many times it was forwarded to fact-checking groups, and then categorizes them into themes, such as public affairs, healthcare, and so on.

But LINE is a messaging app, not a social media platform. LINE’s privacy policy says it does not access users’ conversations and cannot directly fact-check content. However, with the proliferation of fake news on LINE, the company must find a way to solve the problem.

With the advance of communication technology, the line between traditional news and false information has gradually blurred, says Yang. When the public receives a message with malicious content, “it may no longer be news, but false information.”

Yang Mu-hsuan, public policy advisor for LINE corporation, says the company began its digital accountability program in March 2019. (Photo by Lai Yun)

LINE is working with the Associated Press (AP) to create videos that remind the public how to distinguish fake news through means such as trusting quality information, avoiding sources lacking in credibility, not sharing information you are unsure about, comparing different information sources, reading the entire content beyond the headline, inspecting content without a named author or media outlet, and confirming the publication date. The video was translated into six languages and shared all around the world. LINE has also set up a page to dispel rumours, working with government ministries to immediately dispel rumours, and LINE Today’s “Rumor Busting” zone has been viewed over 400 million times.

For Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), chairman of Taiwan Media Watch and a professor of Communications at National Chung Cheng University, the problems are two fold: not enough funding for NGOs that advocate and promote media literacy, and mainstream media outlets that fail to fulfill their duties of informing the public, and even become platforms that spread disinformation themselves.

Lo Shih-hung, chairman of Taiwan Media Watch and a professor at National Chung Cheng University, believes that having sound public media will help improve Taiwan's overall media environment. (Photo by Lai Yun) — Lo Shih-hung, chairman of Taiwan Media Watch and a professor at National Chung Cheng University, believes that having sound public media will help improve Taiwan's overall media environment. (Photo by Lai Yun)

“Elevating the standards of mainstream media” is as important as raising public literacy, said Luo. “We can choose to make our mainstream media better."

Luo believes that a robust public media, with a 24-hour news channel, can provide the public with broader and more comprehensive information. Moreover, this will lead to healthy competition among all broadcasters in Taiwan, and elevate the standards of Taiwan’s media environment.