Mishandling misinformation

WHAT AMERICA SHOULD LEARN FROM TAIWAN

WANTING TO TAKE A I believe a major answer to the This method has recently stunted nubreak from the empty U.S.-Taiwan gap in mask-wearing compli- merous false COVID-19 claims and constreets and shuttered busi- ance is their different responses to misin- spiracies before they could go viral, includnesses of Palo Alto, my formation. Like the U.S., Taiwan is sharply ing posts about the Taiwanese government’s family and I renewed our Taiwanese citizen- divided on major issues and its two main cremation of infected citizens to avoid reship, got tested for COVID-19 and board- political parties are becoming increasingly porting the true number of COVID-19 ed a socially-distanced plane flight destined polarized. Yet, unlike the U.S., Taiwan is cases in the country. This stands in stark for Taipei in December. At the time, the getting misinformation under control. contrast to America’s failure to bust conUnited States had just surpassed 16 mil- During Taiwan’s latest presidential spiracies such as COVID-19’s laboratory lion COVID-19 election, which took place last origins as a biological weapon — which, cases and California was entering its most The best defense year on Jan. 11, pro-China fake news flooded the island. according to the Pew Research Center, 26% of Americans currently believe. stringent phase of to disinformation False claims about the incum- Taiwan’s winning battle against fake shelter-in-place yet. I spent the first is a strong offense. bent president, Tsai Ing-wen, and fabricated articles elevatnews should demonstrate to the world that the best defense to misinformation is a 14 days of my trip ing China’s favored candidate, strong offense. Considering America’s reacin my fifth-floor quarantine hotel room, Han Kou-yu, spread across the internet and tive, whack-a-mole response to COVID-19 overlooking streams of people shopping for social media platforms. Despite this, Tsai misinformation waged mainly by for-profclothes and crowds huddled around street won in a landslide. Fake news failed, and I it social media corporations, the country’s entertainers, wondering why there was such believe the U.S. should take a page out of widespread noncompliance and misundera difference between the development of Taiwan’s proactive and innovative approach standing regarding the pandemic becomes COVID-19 in the two countries. to battling misinformation. better contextualized.

After my self-quarantine, I moved Recently, Taiwan has started partner- Even after the pandemic ends, the into my grandparents’ rural apartment and ing with private companies to extend its U.S.’ infodemic will remain. Taiwan’s restarted to visit hot urban areas and thriving anti-misinformation resources directly into silience in the face of misinformation is a night markets. Everywhere I went, the sight the hands of its citizens. A major example promising sign that even small democracies of someone not wearing a mask in public is Line, the island’s most popular messag- can fight for a better news environment. was exceedingly rare, which, for a country ing app. Its users can now send links and It’s time for the U.S. to build a new and with among the lowest COVID-19 rates in statements to an accessible fact-checking offensive repertoire against misinformation the world, surprised me — and this correla- chatbot, Cofacts, where volunteers rapidly –– and we can start by learning from Taition was likely not coincidental. research claims to determine their validity. wan. v

A TEEMING VIEW — Except for the prevalence of face masks, the global pandemic seems almost absent in Ximending, Taipei’s equivalent of Times Square. I spent my 14 days of mandatory self-quarantine in a designated quarantine hotel located in the center of this popular plaza, where I watched scenes like these from the window of my fifth-floor room.