Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network-Digital Minister shares Taiwan experience at Washington summit

According to [Radio Taiwan International], Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang is making the case for digital democracy. She spoke about Taiwan’s experience in an online speech at the Global Emerging Technology Summit – which took place in Washington on Tuesday.

World leaders joined the summit to discuss concerns about emerging technology, like artificial intelligence. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about China and Russia, which he referred to as nations that commit what he called “horrors of techno-authoritarianism” to crack down on dissent. He said that democratic countries need to make a positive case for a different approach.

Digital Minister Audrey Tang speaks about Taiwan's experience with digital democracy, at the Global Emerging Technology Summit on Tuesday (Washington time). (CNA photo courtesy of Taiwan's representative office in the US)

In her speech, Tang spoke about the differences between digital democracy and digital authoritarianism. She says that in Taiwan, digital democracy helps foster mutual trust because it makes the government more transparent to the people. Tang says digital authoritarianism, on the other hand, is used to monitor people, essentially making people transparent to the government.

Tang also spoke about the Taiwan government’s efforts to deal with fake news. She gave the example of what she calls “humor over rumor,” in which the government employs people to create humorous memes to combat disinformation during the pandemic.

Tang also spoke about how Taiwan’s democratic model of data governance makes it a reliable partner for democratic countries in the development of artificial intelligence.