That’s true. I was not here for the last election. What were you specifically worried about in terms of disinformation last year?
Precision targeting for advertisements on social media?
What’s the norm?
They would publish advertising also?
Did that norm change since the last election?
How did the norm change? Was there a specific…?
When was the self-regulation agreement between the platforms?
Who is part of the agreement?
Is PTT less influential in politics than it used to be?
Anecdotally, do you have a sense?
Is that going to change if they start registrations?
Why did they stop?
Was the Kansai Airport incident a major factor in last year’s election? Was it important?
You think so?
TFCC is government-funded?
Why do you think that incident made such a big impact at the time? Obviously, it was tragic more than most fake news. Was there something else about it that…
Ultimately, correct me if I’m wrong, TFCC has not also attributed any of that to Chinese government, right?
The origin of the information, the bad information.
On Weibo.
Why do you think this case is having such an impact now? People are still talking about the…
Do you think it’s changed people’s impression of DPP also? It’s exposed something about DPP?
Do you think the parties are responsible for creating a lot of disinformation?
Political parties.
The major parties.
Separate from the China issue, this is something a lot democracies are dealing with. Digital campaigning is now very, you can do a lot of new tricks. You have a lot of tools now.
I don’t know in Taiwan how bad or how widespread any acquisitions of official untruth. I just don’t know how big of a problem it is.
Tell me what a day in the life of the digital minister of Taiwan is.
Give me a…
That’s your office hours. What about non-office-hour day?
Sorry, the Friday is for a specific digital petition?
The government has to respond to it if a certain number of people…
What kind of petitions do you hear?
What did you hear in Wulai yesterday?
Who goes on Tuesdays? Is it just you or other ministers?
Really?
To return to disinformation, your proposed solution that you gave to the CPJ, how much of that is implemented in Taiwan right now in terms of rapid response?
Who responds?
When did that start? When did the system begin?
By July 2018, the quantitative metrics of the…
That was when LINE Today agreed?
Cautiously optimistic, what makes you pessimistic? What is the flipside of all this for you in terms of disinformation, in terms of Chinese influence?
Why cautious? Why not be fully optimistic? [laughs]
Were you a very political person before you became a minister?
What about more traditional political issues?
Like the outcomes of elections and Chinese…
Yes.
I guess you’re non-partisan.
What I’m trying to understand is what differentiates Taiwan from many other liberal democracies is the existential questions that hang above Taiwan. The future is just totally up for grabs in Taiwan in a different way than it is for…I don’t know. It’s comparable to what Israel faces. How does that color…
Climate change is a good example. Liberal democracies are not very good at thinking long term like that. For you, what is your picture of Taiwan’s future relative to China? Is it something that you can actually…Does it impact your day-to-day life?
As a Taiwanese, you must think about China. You must think about the future in terms of what’s going to happen with China.
