How Taiwan beat back disinformation and preserved the integrity of its election
ABC News
Voters in Taiwan recently repelled a wave of disinformation seeking to undermine their democracy ahead of this month's recent election
WASHINGTON -- The rumors about vote fraud started swirling as the ballots in Taiwan’s closely watched presidential election were tallied on Jan. 13. There were baseless claims that people had fabricated votes and that officials had miscounted and skewed the results.
In a widely shared video, a woman recording votes mistakenly enters one in the column for the wrong candidate. The message was clear: The election could not be trusted. The results were faked.
It could have been Taiwan's Jan. 6 moment. But it wasn't.
Worries that China would use disinformation to undermine the integrity of Taiwan's vote dogged the recent election, a key moment in the young democracy's development that highlighted tensions with its much larger neighbor.
In repelling disinformation, Chinese and domestic, Taiwan offers an example to other democracies holding elections this year.
