TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Over 800 fake Facebook accounts are disseminating content from an operation launched on TikTok and YouTube designed to influence the outcome of the 2024 Taiwanese presidential election, according to social media analytics firm Graphika.
The research firm’s latest report said an operation has been underway since May 2022 that is trying to interfere in Taiwan’s elections through fake social media accounts and taking advantage of Taiwan’s news cycle to “manipulate online conversations about Taiwanese politics.” The report revealed that as of last week, the scheme involved over 800 fake Facebook accounts, 13 Facebook pages, one TikTok account, and one YouTube channel.
The Graphika report pointed out that the fake accounts often use Chinese-language memes and videos, and use erroneous or uncommon transliterations of Taiwanese slang, indicating that the creators behind them are not fully fluent in the language. The report said that this activity supports and promotes Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), and its presidential candidate Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), while criticizing its rivals, including Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and the Taiwan People’s Party’s (TPP) candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
Graphika researchers pointed out that propaganda campaigns often operate in conjunction with developments in Taiwan’s news. For example, during controversies such as the egg shortage, attempts are made to paint opponents of the KMT as inept and corrupt.
Researchers found that the operation is orchestrated by a persona that appears on both YouTube and TikTok under the handle “Agitate Taiwan” (鼓動台灣), having become active on two platforms since August 2022 and December 2022, respectively. The persona serves as a content hub for the campaign as it daily publishes multiple videos, which are then distributed by the hundreds of “inauthentic” Facebook accounts.
Graphika said posts on Facebook had few signs of engagement with authentic Facebook users, but some posts appeared at the top of search results for specific topic hashtags. These posts are related to the political parties and candidates in Taiwan’s presidential elections, such as “#民進黨 (#DPP), #賴清德 (DPP candidate Lai Ching-te), and #侯友宜 (KMT candidate Hou Yu-ih).”
A spokesperson for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, was cited by NPR as stating: “We worked with researchers at Graphika to investigate this cross-internet activity which failed to build engagement among real people on our platform. We took it down and continue to monitor for any additional violations of our inauthentic behavior policy.”
YouTube deleted Agitate Taiwan from its platform for “violating its rules against spam, deceptive practices, and scams.” However, the persona continues to operate on TikTok, a company spokesperson told NPR.
According to the TikTok representative, an investigation is underway into the account, but it has “not found evidence that it was inauthentic or part of the operation.”
TikTok has yet to respond to a request from Taiwan News to further elaborate on why it does not believe the Agitate Taiwan account is inauthentic or part of an election interference operation.
