Photo by Lisanto 李奕良 on Unsplash
Taiwan’s elections in January demonstrated the “resilience” of a democratic society.
That was one of the messages to emerge from an event in the European Parliament on Friday.
The hearing in Brussels was organised by the Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium along with three cross-party MEPs.
They were:Petras Auštrevičius (Renew Europe), Vladimír Bilčík (EPP), and Markéta Gregorová(Greens/EFA).
They jointly organised the seminar titled ‘Countering FIMI and election interference in Taiwan: Implications for the EU.’
In opening the event, the three MEPs stated that with the European Parliament elections set to take place in June, issues related to foreign interference in democratic processes, election interference, and disinformation are of great concern in the lead up to the election.
Highlighting the fact that Taiwan’s elections in January “demonstrated the resilience of a democratic society”, they expressed their firm belief that Taiwan and the EU can continue to exchange experiences on countering information manipulation and election interference.
The three deputies also welcomed the visit of the Taiwan Counter-Information Manipulation NGO Expert delegation as “highly meaningful at this juncture.”
The five visiting experts from Taiwan delivered presentations at the seminar. All are experts in the field from Taiwanese NGOs and government.
They were Min-Hsuan Wu (Ttcat, Co-founder and CEO of Doublethink Lab), Chihhao Yu (Co-Director of IORG), Billion Lee (Co-founder of Cofacts), Hui-An Ho, (Head of international affairs, Taiwan FactCheck Center), and Wen-Ping Liu (Member of the Research Committee, Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB).
Topics included malicious election interference, fact-checking, disinformation campaigns, cognitive warfare, deep fake technology, and the impact of AI and digital technology development on democratic governance.
They also engaged extensively in discussions with the audience during the event.
Attendees considered the seminar timely, especially given the upcoming European Parliament elections.
The discussions focused on countering information manipulation and election interference.
This not only helped the audience understand Taiwan’s experiences in dealing with Chinese and other interferences, but also served as a reminder of the importance of like-minded countries continuing to cooperate with Taiwan to strengthen democratic resilience.
This cooperation is considered crucial for safeguarding shared values and the democratic way of life, the event was told.
