A Taiwan legislator has said that China is using social media platforms like TikTok and Xiaohongshu for cognitive warfare in Taiwan. Lawmaker Michelle Lin shared these views on Tuesday at a committee meeting to discuss diplomatic defense.
Lin says that anyone has the power to create a TikTok account and start uploading public videos, but there is no real system in place to verify the validity of video content. TikTok and Xiaohongshu are Chinese social networking apps. Lin says this allows China to control and spread false information in other countries.
Netizens were quick to point out that Lin herself has a TikTok account with a variety of news videos. Lin later said her account was created in 2018, when she was a news presenter, not a politician.
Lin said that an intern had managed the TikTok account, but they stopped uploading videos a few months after creating the account. Since Lin wasn’t in charge of managing the account, she said she forgot that it still existed.
Lin said cognitive warfare is a major concern in Taiwan, and she will continue to monitor it and call on other politicians to take action against fake news on social media.