｜ mation. The digital information ecosystem has not only facilitated public participation but also made it a lot more convenient to spread false information, thereby causing great harm to the functioning of democracy. There are two cases from 2018 that can clearly illustrate the impact disinformation has had on Taiwanese society. The first case was the toilet paper panic buying incident that happened around February and March of that year. The incident stemmed from an improper marketing strategy, but many citizens panicked, believing that the price of toilet paper was about to rise drastically. This resulted in some people buying up too much toilet paper while others couldn’t find any and was a major inconvenience for everyone. This false information only resulted in come inconveniences, but the Kansai Airport incident that happened in September that year shocked Taiwanese society and political circles. On September 4, 2018, Typhoon Jebi hit Japan. The Kansai Airport subsequently flooded, becoming like an island in flood waters. The Chinese media outlet Observer reported on September 5 that “the Chinese embassy is here to pick people up!” However, the report only cited “information from Weibo netizens”. The false information claimed: “China’s embassy in Osaka had dispatched 15 buses to move Chinese nationals out of the Kansai Airport and hand out food and drinks. A few Taiwanese people asked if they could board the buses. The answer was “Sure, if you think you are Chinese, you can board the bus and follow your motherland.” This false information reported on the 5th was immediately picked up by Taiwanese media outlets the next day. Similar rumors and discussions were also 156 Chapter 5 ｜ Continual Improvement: Keeping Up with International Trends posted on online forums like PTT. Although it later turned out that the Observer fabricated the report with misrepresented facts an fabricated information, it had already caused major controversy and conflicts in Taiwanese society, even resulting in Taiwan’s representative in Osaka tragically committing suicide. Information Warfare—Using Freedom to Undermine Democracy In the production and dissemination of disinformation on the Internet, one of the most insidious and damaging forces is overseas information manipulation. Many people have dubbed this “information warfare”, a new form of war! These are not simple pranks or people seeking direct financial gain, but campaigns to use disinformation to incite conflict in the target society, creating turmoil and chaos in enemy nations and there by achieving political goals without military intervention. Does overseas information manipulation exist? How is it conducted? The Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement in Hong Kong is a prime example. Multinational social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube announced that they had deleted or terminated of a total of 200,000 accounts and channels in August 2019, directly stating that the Chinese state machine was the mastermind behind these accounts and channels. In its press release, Twitter stated that the accounts deleted and terminated were part of a “state-backed operation”. In its press release, Facebook stated that although the people behind the deleted accounts attempted to conceal their identities, its investigation China often takes advantage of the freedom and democracy in Taiwan to engage in cognitive warfare, spreading various propaganda on the streets of Taiwan. Photographer: Huang Yen-wen found links to individuals “associated with the Chinese government”. In a public policy blog post disclosing the news, YouTube also said that the deleted channels in the network behaved in a “coordinated manner” while uploading videos related to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. The operation was identical to that disclosed by Twitter and Facebook. The “coordinated inauthentic behavior” named by Facebook and Twitter and the “coordinated influence operations” identified by YouTube refer to coordinated manipulation of information by a person or or- ganization hiding their true identity on social medial accounts, fan pages, clubs, or channels. These information manipulation operations can be motivated by political considerations or economic goals. Politically-driven overseas information manipulation is especially concerning for democratic countries because it can affect national security and the effective operation of the democratic system. The difference between coordinated information manipulation and regular disinformation lies in how systematic and planned it is, which increases the difficulty of fully detecting it. 157