THREAD Taiwan’s digital minister Audrey Tang ( @audreyt) is sharing best practices of using digital tools to increase #transparency, improve epidemic prevention and fight #disinformation related to Covid-19. #StrongerTogether https://www.frstrategie.org/sites/default/files/documents/publications/autres/2020/Interview%20Audrey%20Tang.pdf

2/n “A digital democracy is a democracy with the use of the digital spaces, so that people cannot only be talked to but also be listened to. (…) It’s about the government trusting the people without requiring the people trusting back”. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/opinion/taiwan-digital-democracy.html

3/n “The Taiwan model of responding to disinformation, primarily, does not rely on legal control but rather collaborates with major social media platforms such as Facebook, LINE, and Google”.

4/n “The Executive Yuan adopts the “2-2-2 principle” in expecting prompt clarifications from each ministry within 20 minutes and 200 words, with the inclusion of 2 images (a majority of which should be completed within 1 hour after the disinformation is disclosed)”.

5/n “Of course, meme engineering —that is, the “package the message in such a funny way that you simply have to share it” — can crucially allow accurate information to be disseminated more quickly (…) a strategy that we call humor over rumor”.

6/n “I have worked with the Taiwanese government and «civic hackers» such as the g0v movement, through the NHIA’s mask stock level data, collected from pharmacies and released as open data to develop an online mask supply and demand information platform”. https://mask.pdis.nat.gov.tw 

7/n “We partnered with major convenience stores to implement an online ordering mechanism at the “eMask Ordering System” for all residents, with delivery and pick-up at convenience stores”. https://emask.taiwan.gov.tw/msk/index.jsp 

8/n “Taiwan’s system, the Digital Fence, is believed to be the first to use mobile phone tracking for that purpose. The system monitors phone signals to alert police and local officials if those in home-quarantine move away from their address or turn off their phones”.

9/n “A government agency use of personal data is restricted to only specific cases such as for ensuring national security or furthering public interest”. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/2020-03-20/how-civic-technology-can-help-stop-pandemic

10/n “Privacy protection is one of the major concerns on the use of location data for anti-coronavirus. The use of the electronic epidemic prevention system should be cautious and minimized so that it preserves the protection of personal information”.

11/11 Many thanks to Audrey Tang for answering our questions and sharing best practices from Taiwan. More publications from the Foundation for Strategic Research below. https://www.frstrategie.org/en