TOP DOG Taiwan employed cute mascots to ease public anxiety and fight disinformation during the global pandemic
RELEASE THE SPOKESDOGS At the height of the pandemic, Taiwan established its own command centre, with dedicated teams focusing on media clarification and debunking conspiracy theories in what Tang called the ‘infodemic.’ The flood of disinformation was countered with a strategy deliberately employing fun. “‘Humour over rumour’ was our approach, in which a vaccine of the mind is voluntarily developed and shared by the people.” Creating humorous content to combat online disinformation begins to crowd out falsehoods with higher viewing numbers and greater engagement. Memes featuring adorable shiba inu as ‘spokesdogs’ – headed by top ministry spokesdog Zongchai – helped relay information during the pandemic and counter
both rumours and conspiracy theories. One illustration reminded people to stay two shiba inu away from people in public spaces and three shiba inu away indoors. Taiwan – as it happens – got the pandemic under control far earlier than most other countries. The shiba inu memes inspired the NAFO (North Atlantic Fellas Organization) movement, which counters Russian propaganda in the Ukraine war with humorous quips from edited shiba inu images. NAFO memes directly engaged Russian politicians with their impervious silliness, and have subsequently been adopted by heads of state and military officials as their Twitter avatars. “Any response that begins with top-down takedown, lockdown and censorship faces extensive resistance in our pluralistic democracy. Anything that resembles censorship is a non- starter, so we have to innovate ways to outrun the architects of conspiracy theories and information manipulation campaigns,” says Tang. In an era of automated content, where the dream of many content owners is a fire-and-forget model requiring as little monitoring as possible, countering disinformation
BEIJING
CHINA
TAIPEI
TAIWAN
SOUTH CHINA SEA
ANY RESPONSE THAT BEGINS WITH TOP-DOWN TAKEDOWN, LOCKDOWN AND CENSORSHIP FACES RESISTANCE IN OUR PLURALISTIC DEMOCRACY
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