Skip to content
捐款支持事實查核
台灣事實查核學苑

ENGLISH

Facebook X Instagram YouTube Apple Podcasts Threads
看見真實,才能打造美好台灣
  • 最新消息
  • 查核報告
  • 謠言風向球
  • 議題觀察室
  • TOP10
  • 重點專區
  • 名家專欄
  • 國際視野
  • Podcast
Account 登入
English
捐款支持
看見真實,才能打造美好台灣

Head of Asia Fact Check Lab shares four evolutionary trajectories of disinformation

2023-09-12 研究與動態

The head of a fact-checking body under a United States media company has recently shared his organization’s tips and best practices in debunking fake news during an interview with a Taiwan FactCheck Center Podcast.

In an interview with Chao-Hwei Huang, host of the National Education Radio show/podcast “Bye Bye Fake News,” Chih-Te Lee, director of Asia Fact Check Lab under the Radio Free Asia (RFA), said fact-checking has become increasingly important nowadays, which is why the RFA has recently launched the lab.

Image: The Director of Asia Fact Check Lab under the Radio Free Asia (RFA) Chih-Te Lee (R), gave an interview to the Taiwan FactCheck Foundation podcast “Bye Bye Fake News,” speaking to the podcast host Chao-Hwei Huang about his team's mission and work. 

 

Founded in 1996, RFA is a United States government-funded private non-profit news service that broadcasts radio programs and publishes online news, information, and commentary for its audiences in Asia.

The service has the stated mission of providing accurate and uncensored reporting to countries in Asia that have poor media environments and limited protections for press freedom and freedom of speech.

According to Lee, however, the current problem in Asia is no longer limited access or blockage of information; it is the fact that the authoritarian regime has been taking advantage of the currently free and open information environment to broadcast their own propaganda to the democratic world in an attempt to spread fake news and misinformation to exert influence to free-thinking people. 

Therefore, RFA has decided to launch a new Asia Fact Check Lab platform that aims to provide viewers with accurate and unbiased analysis of China-related statements made in public in order to counter misinformation and disinformation and to increase knowledge of critical issues, according to Lee.

Lee also shared with the podcast host the daily operations of his lab; their main job is divided into two parts: interviewing people and doing research for the purpose of fact checks.  

In terms of fact-checking, Lee said fact-check reports are important because they could be available online for a very long time. These reports can play a role in helping people better understand the meaning behind the dissemination of fake news and its political purposes. 

Unlike other fact-checking organizations in Taiwan, Lee said his team focuses not only on debunking fake news in Taiwan. It is also working with RFA’s other foreign language news departments to help fact-check misinformation that has been spread in other parts of the world.

For instance, RFA’s Uighur language department helps to translate news and information related to the Ürümqi deadly fire that happened in late 2022 that have been widely circulating online, while its Vietnamese language department did its part to debunk false information concerning that mistakenly saw the Vietnamese government dissing the Blinken by allegedly not displaying a U.S. flag during in a April trip.

Lee said his team has also found four evolutionary trajectories of disinformation. First of all, many of these false information are overly one-sided stories. 

For instance, in a previous U.S.-based think tank report featuring simulation results on the People’s Liberation Army’s potential invasion of Taiwan, one widely circulated piece of misinformation intentionally highlighted one of the most extreme scenarios in the report to discredit the whole report.

Also, rumor spreaders would repeatedly question the said think tank report and accuse the report of being funded by certain companies to question its credibility.

The third widely used method by rumor spreaders is to take things out of context.

For instance, the Taiwan Fellowship Program is a yet-to-be-launched program that would allow U.S. federal employees to work in Taiwanese government agencies for a year.

However, rumor spreaders have taken the program out of context, accusing it without evidence that the U.S. is launching it to send spies into Taiwanese government units to collect confidential information, Lee said.

The final evolution path of a piece of misinformation is that pro-China TV show hosts in Taiwan would often intentionally misinterpret a certain topic and, via conversations with their guests, present a totally different story to their views for their own political gains.

“Fact-checking is like cleaning up shit inside a shithole,” Lee told the podcast host. 

The job is an extremely difficult but worth the effort because it will help prevent the spread of misinformation and keep more people “away from the shithole,” according to Lee.

Read the Chinese version of the interview here. Listen to the podcast interview here.

事實查核需要你的一份力量 捐款贊助我們

本中心查核作業獨立進行,不受捐助者影響。

事實查核需要你的一份力量 捐款贊助我們

本中心查核作業獨立進行,不受捐助者影響。

看見真實.打造美好台灣!

假新聞與假資訊破壞人類溝通最根本的真實原則,傷害民主運作最基礎的信賴原則,必須加以遏止,以免斲喪公共生活的品質。

02-2501 7010

[email protected]

  • 成立宗旨
  • 董事會
  • 組織架構
  • 查核團隊
  • 查核準則及說明
  • 捐款報告
  • 年度報告
  • IFCN的認證與申訴
  • 媒體報導
  • QA
© 2024 台灣事實查核中心 Taiwan FactCheck Center 更正政策 著作權聲明 隱私權政策

Scroll to top
Invalid search form.
聯絡我們

關於我們

  • — 成立宗旨
  • — 董事會
  • — 組織架構
  • — 查核團隊
  • — 查核準則及說明
  • — 大事紀
  • — 歷年得獎紀錄
  • — QA

支持事實查核

  • — 捐款報告
  • — 年度報告
舉報與申訴

  • 最新消息
  • 查核報告
  • 謠言風向球
  • 議題觀察室
  • TOP10
  • 重點專區
  • 名家專欄
  • 國際視野
  • Podcast
  • 台灣事實查核學苑
  • 關於我們
    • 成立宗旨
    • 董事會
    • 組織架構
    • 查核團隊
    • 查核準則及說明
    • QA
    • 捐款報告
    • 年度報告
    • IFCN認證與申訴
Account