Written by Wei-Ping Li, Ph.D.
Image credit: Zapping by Anders Adermark. / Flickr, license: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
One of the most vulnerable areas in Taiwan’s battle against Chinese disinformation has been its television talk shows. Some TV talk show hosts and guests have repeatedly spread false information. In other situations, TV talk show footage of opinion influencers known for criticising the Chinese government was edited by information manipulators using artificial intelligence tools to spread propaganda. To counteract disinformation, Taiwanese media must exercise stricter self-discipline. Furthermore, fact-checkers, the research community, and media outlets must collaborate to enhance the understanding of the effects of disinformation on viewers, devise countermeasures, and raise knowledge of false information among audiences.
Over the years, as information manipulators have become more adept at developing and disseminating disinformation, they have delved deeper to exploit Taiwan’s free and democratic media system, which comprises both traditional and social media. In the realm of traditional media, certain Taiwanese news outlets have been the subject of attention due to their frequent alignment with the themes and discourse of Chinese propaganda. However, talk show programs, which invite guests to provide commentary on current events, have also frequently acted as propagators of disinformation.
TV talk shows used to be a symbol of media democratisation in Taiwan. During the political democratisation movement, cable TV talk shows played a key role in initiating and pushing political reforms. Nonetheless, as the Taiwanese media landscape became more commercialised, talk shows became commodities competing for viewers’ attention and ad revenue. As political topics have gained interest among Taiwanese viewers, politicians and journalists have found talk shows to be an excellent platform for promoting agendas. Different TV stations and programs have distinct political viewpoints and may gravitate toward specific political leanings. Worse, certain programs may become propaganda tools. Currently, all major TV channels offer a variety of talk show programs, the majority of which air during prime time. Additionally, most programs are uploaded to YouTube. Notably, after the National Communication Commission (NCC) rejected the renewal of the broadcast license for the pro-Beijing news station Chung T’ien Television (CTiTV) due to CTiTv’s failure to fact-check information, CTiTv moved its news programs and talk shows online and broadcast through YouTube channels.
The problem of TV talk shows spreading false information is not unique to Taiwan. A study by Yang and Bennett highlighted the talk programs of the US TV network Fox hosted by Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, echoed with American politicians to promote false information about the COVID-19 pandemic. Regarding Taiwan, the dissemination of false information on political talk programs has not yet been extensively studied. However, extant research has shown that Taiwanese TV talk shows have pushed commentators to use divisive language and scathingly oppose one another to draw audiences.
Supposedly, talk program viewers could learn more about news events from the commentators, who not only share their viewpoints but also sometimes mention “inside stories.” However, the information the talk show guests provide is rarely subjected to rigorous verification and may be inaccurate. Since the Taiwanese TV talk show promotes hyperbole and disregards the process of verifying information, they serve as ideal amplifiers of disinformation.
Taiwanese fact-checking organisations have noted this trend and documented multiple instances in which talk-show commentators spread falsehoods. The disinformation pieces promoted by TV talk show commentators frequently address, but are not limited to, international news events and relationships between Taiwan, China, and the United States. Examples include claiming that China’s armed forces have an advantage over the US and portraying the US’s political situation as extremely chaotic. The sources of false information are often from social media or even inaccurate news articles from online news media.
One example is the discussion of the “American Civil War” in several Taiwanese TV talk shows during late January and early February 2024. Earlier in January 2024, the US federal government and the Texas state government clashed over immigrant issues, which resulted in the Texas government blocking federal agents from entering a region in Eagle Pass, Texas. This standoff, although intense, was exaggerated by social media users. Images falsely claiming that fighting vehicles and tanks had been transported from other states to the borders were disseminated by English accounts on X, which were then translated into Chinese and spread by Chinese social media influencers, claiming that the “American Civil War” was imminent and would throw the US into chaos.
Some Taiwanese online news outlets then picked up the photos and the false information, while several TV talk show hosts and guests directly used the untrue information, without hesitation or questioning, to fervently “analyse” and discuss the “imminent war” and potential impact on the 2024 US election. The inaccurate information delivered by the talk shows thus gave significantly warped worldviews to the Taiwanese audiences about what is going on in the US, which might further influence how audiences understand global events and mislead subsequent political discussions in Taiwan.
China’s information influence campaign has long noticed the influence of Taiwanese talk shows and the guests who frequently make their appearances. The guests’ remarks have also served as propaganda materials not only for the Taiwanese but also for “domestic propaganda” for Chinese citizens. One example is the recent disinformation on the subject of Taiwanese President Lai-Ching-te’s visit to Kinmen in August. Disinformation claimed that Lai was stranded in Kinmen, a group of small islands located between Taiwan and China, for days when China was conducting military drills in the area around the same time. The truth is that Lai flew back to Taipei the same day he visited Kinmen. However, Taiwanese talk show influencers, such as Julian Kuo (郭正亮), Tang Hsiang-Lung (唐湘龍), and Yi Chiu (邱毅), spread the disinformation of Lai’s “delay,” which never happened, by using terms like “catching a turtle in a jar [甕中捉鱉]” in their social media posts, videos, and shows. They intended to create an image of President Lai as vulnerable and trapped, thus undermining his leadership and provoking public fear about Taiwan’s security in relation to China. Soon after, Chinese content farms, state media’s social media accounts, and Chinese influencers began propagating disinformation about Lai’s “being stuck” in Kinmen, which received a lot of attention from users of Chinese social media such as Weibo and Douyin.
Recently, fact-checkers and researchers discovered that information manipulators used AI tools to twist old video clips from previous talk show programs, creating fake videos in which influencers known for criticising the Chinese government praised China’s military and stated that they would surrender if the Chinese military landed on Taiwan. The information manipulators appear to be aware of Taiwan’s media ecosystem and take advantage of the impact of influencers on their audiences.
The cases in which Taiwanese talk show influencers promote disinformation resonating with Chinese propaganda highlight the growing challenges in Taiwan’s battle against disinformation. However, the cases also provide us with valuable insights about how to combat the problem. First and foremost, these cases demonstrate that disinformation should be tackled from a holistic perspective. In other words, disinformation is spread not only on social media but also by TV influencers, news outlets, and politicians, even if these parties do not always coordinate their efforts. Furthermore, average audiences may also contribute to the creation and dissemination of disinformation, as well as the promotion of propaganda. This means that researchers, journalists, fact-checkers, and policymakers need to understand more about the roles of different media and the impact of disinformation on media audiences in order to develop successful strategies for countering disinformation. Meanwhile, media literacy training should teach people how to evaluate and trust information sources. Needless to say, the media, particularly TV talk shows, should be held to high verification standards when providing information to audiences.
Wei-Ping Li is a postdoctoral researcher at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism and a research fellow at the Taiwan FactCheck Centre. Her research focuses on disinformation, propaganda, conspiracy theories, and content moderation.
This article was published as part of a special issue on ‘Media Dynamics Across the Strait’.