Fake social media accounts are spreading misinformation about Taiwanese elections

According to a report by research firm Graphika, an influence campaign threatens to manipulate information regarding Taiwan’s upcoming presidential election. The operation used over 800 fake accounts and 13 Facebook pages to repost Chinese-language TikTok and YouTube videos discussing Taiwanese politics.

The tactics and techniques involved deploying seemingly fake accounts, posing as Taiwanese residents, and featuring profile pictures of genuine individuals altered to change their appearance. Coordination was evident, with various versions posting identical content mere minutes apart.

The content predominantly favoured the Kuomintang (KMT), the primary opposition party in Taiwan viewed as pro-China, while criticising its rivals, notably the ruling Democratic Progressive Party advocating for Taiwan’s independence. The operation strategically aligned its content with Taiwan’s news cycle, using domestic developments to portray the KMT’s opponents negatively.

Why does it matter?

This revelation, highlighted by Graphika, occurs against a backdrop of warnings from government officials and tech companies regarding the susceptibility of elections worldwide to manipulation by states like Russia or groups in the US. The alarm has also been raised at the massive scalebacks happening across big social media companies regarding content removal and misinformation prevention, with X being of particular concern.

Although most of the identified fake accounts were removed by social media platforms and had limited engagement, certain Facebook posts gained prominence in search results for specific Taiwanese political party hashtags. Despite the low engagement, Graphika predicts an escalation in attempts by foreign and domestic actors to manipulate online political discourse in Taiwan leading up to the 2024 election.