How Taiwan uses digital democracy to fight AI misinfo and foster social dialogue

At 9 am on the morning of Sept. 13, a total of 142 activists from nine countries gathered at the Net Zero Institute in Kaohsiung, the second-largest city in Taiwan. These activists had convened for “Facing the Ocean (FtO)” 2025, an event dedicated to the digital deliberative democracy movement.

Throughout the event, civic hackers and members of civic tech organizations working to advance democracy through digital technology shared applause and laughter, demonstrating their mutual trust and strong sense of solidarity.

FtO is an international hackathon held annually since 2019, rotating among the three East Asian nations sharing the same sea — South Korea, Japan and Taiwan — marking its fifth iteration this year.

Taiwan uses AI technology to foster communication, debate, and policy development

The world is witnessing a crisis of democracy more profound than ever before. Whereas military forces once threatened democracy through coups, the defining feature of today’s crisis is that politicians who have come to power through democratic procedures like elections are the ones shaking democracy’s foundations. Consequently, approaches that integrate direct democracy to complement representative democracy — where citizens delegate their rights to politicians — are garnering significant attention.

Taiwan is recognized globally as a model nation for deliberative democracy that uses digital technology. Eun-soo Lee, an organizer from Code for Korea for whom this was the third year participating in FtO, stated, “While Taiwan is globally known [for its digital deliberative democracy], Korea has been less recognized despite how active the movement has been.”

Code for Korea, the Korean co-host of FtO, is a civic technology community formed in 2020 as part of a joint effort to distribute government-provided masks to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2024, the Taiwanese government sent text messages to 250,000 of its citizens, soliciting participants for discussion groups devising countermeasures against the flood of fraudulent advertising. Such illegal activities use artificial intelligence and proliferate on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. They selected 450 individuals from the respondents, and formed online discussion groups of 10 members each, evenly distributed by gender, age and region of origin. The citizens then spent three months discussing how such fraudulent advertising might be addressed.

The diverse opinions that emerged from these discussions were analyzed using AI technology, and proposals supported by over 80% of participants were compiled. This culminated in the enactment of a special Anti-Fraud Crime Prevention and Control Act, which included the introduction of a system mandating the use of one’s legal name for online advertising.

“In effect, we’ve used AI technology to prevent AI scams,” said Audrey Tang, the former minister of digital affairs of Taiwan.

In July and August this year, Taiwan witnessed an unprecedented situation: a citizen-led recall election targeting 31 legislators from the opposition Kuomintang party. The reasoning was that the pro-China KMT was obstructing state affairs and weakening national security. Although the vote results fell short of the recall threshold in all districts, the significant role digital democracy played in the process is a marked achievement.

Attorney Peter Cui of vTaiwan, a citizen-led public discussion platform, said, “[Taiwanese] citizens used Line and other social media platforms to spread the opinion that the recall election was necessary.”

Activist community “g0v” plays a major role

In 2015, a major accident occurred at an amusement park near Taipei where multiple individuals suffered severe burns caused by fireworks. In this emergency requiring rapid transport to a hospital, the messaging service Slack, used by members of “g0v,” or Gov-Zero, a community of digital democracy activists, played a crucial role. It became a way for people to check which hospitals had open hospital beds in real time.

“I think it’s the biggest achievement of Slack within any project,” assessed Pomin Wu, who oversees international exchange for g0v.

Taiwan’s digital democracy movement, which began in earnest with the founding of g0v, is deeply embedded in the daily lives of the public. The movement is both the cornerstone of the nation’s digital democracy and an incubation center for fostering activists.

There’s no talking about Taiwan’s digital democracy without mentioning “civic hackers.” A civic hacker is someone who has devoted themselves to digital democracy. While some are professional activists, many are volunteers who have professions outside the movement. These people come from diverse backgrounds, including teaching, journalism and law practice. Tang was a hacker. Wu, who has a PhD in mathematics, is a computer programmer. Cui practices law.

The Sunflower Student Movement of 2014 was a catalyst that spread the digital democracy movement to the mainstream. It was also a turning point in Taiwanese society. Opposed to the unfair service trade deal that the Kuomintang administration was making with China, students and citizens captured the world’s attention when they occupied the Legislative Yuan.

Gov-zero and civic hackers livestreamed the occupation, broadcasting the demands of the students and protesters and the debates they were having. The incident convinced the Kuomintang administration to declare an “open government” and emphasize transparency and openness.

This is also when vTaiwan was founded. The group livestreamed debates between state workers, civilian experts, and citizens for and against various issues of contention. This is one way that social disagreements revolving around Uber taxis were resolved. In 2016, the citizen-driven fact-checking platform Cofacts was founded. Citizens reported suspicious news on social media platforms to platform bots to check their factual accuracy.

Live broadcasts of civic debate leading to solutions

When the Democratic Progressive Party took power in 2016, the policies they pushed nurtured the digital democracy movement. By elevating the government’s openness and transparency, they bolstered civic participation and communication, which became drivers of the country’s development.

The administration recruited civic hacker Audrey Tang into its Executive Yuan as a “minister without portfolio,” and Tang effectively became the minister for digital affairs. Under Tang’s leadership, public participation and discussion platforms like Join were activated.

The Join platform allowed ordinary citizens to make policy proposals. Once a proposal got over 5,000 approvals from other users, it became an official agenda item in the relevant government ministry. Through in-depth discussions involving regular people, government agencies, the business community, civic groups, and related experts, the proposals could become official policies or lead to legislative amendments. The system demonstrated its worth last year in the form of special legislation to prevent fraud and digital scams and crimes involving AI.

This is a stark contrast to how the digital democracy movement in Korea has been suppressed for political reasons or how policies lack consistency. When, during the administration of Yoon Suk-yeol, the Korea Communications Commission utilized unfair audits to levy heavy fines against “Fact Check Net,” a citizen-driven group, it became the subject of international criticism at an FtO event.

During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, cooperation between the state and proposals from civic hackers led to the development of a “mask map” app. This served as a second catalyst for the digital democracy movement. This not only prevented the panic-buying of masks, but it also allowed Taiwan to swiftly overcome the crisis without lockdowns.

“The four major traits of a society with a developed digital democracy are democratic foundations; basic digital and internet infrastructure; dedication from key actors; and an ability to defend against external threats through internal social unity,” Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Isabel Hou said. She explicitly identified China and earthquakes as some of the threats that Taiwan faces.

Using the double-edged sword of AI for public values

One of the greatest challenges of Taiwan’s digital democracy is AI. AI has two faces. If used correctly, it can aid democracy. If misused, it can threaten democracy through fake news and deep fakes.

“AI is a double-edged sword, so the state needs to provide proper guidance on how to use it,” Hou said. “The biggest issues are how you train AI and what role it’s used for.”

The deputy minister called for pursuing “civic care” to ensure that there is public trust in AI by designing and operating it according to public values instead of just using it as a technical tool for efficiency.