On November 6th, 2018, Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang spoke at a panel event titled “Social Innovation and the Renovation of Democracy”. This event was held at the Jackman Humanities Building at the University of Toronto, sponsored by the Global Taiwan Studies Program based at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. Minister Tang’s presentation focused on the rise of digital technology in Taiwan, and emphasized the importance of government transparency and data and information openness for a stronger democracy. Her remarks discussed Taiwan’s widespread digital infrastructure, its ties to civil society, and how this link has kept the government accountable through increased civic involvement. Professor Tong Lam, an Associate Professor in the Department of Historical Studies and the Graduate Department of History at the University of Toronto, introduced the Minister and offered closing remarks at the event.
Minister Audrey Tang became Taiwan’s first Digital Minister in October 2016. She is widely recognized for her contributions to reinvigorating the computer languages of Perl and Haskell. She is heavily involved in both private and public sectors in Taiwan, notably including her leadership of Taiwan’s first e-Rulemaking project and her previous experience as a consultant for Apple. Minister Tang is also an active contributor to the g0v (“gov-zero”) community, which seeks to engage civil society actors through equipping them with the necessary tools to reach consensus and effectively contribute to policymaking processes.
Minister Tang’s opening remarks addressed an audience member’s question regarding the hoarding of information and power in Taiwan. The Minister pointed to Taiwan’s social innovation landscape, and reiterated President Tsai’s emphasis on the plurality of values. The President believes that democracy should not be a “clash between opposing values”; rather, it must become a “conversation among many different values.” Thus, Minister Tang opened her presentation by sharing her optimism for the future of Taiwan’s digital democracy.
Upon assuming her role as Digital Minister, Minister Tang adopted the Internet Society’s approach of governance to her platform in the Taiwanese government. This governance approach stresses three core ideas: radical transparency, voluntary association, and location independence. Radical transparency refers to the idea that information must be open and accessible to all members of society. Voluntary association denotes the concept that participation ought to be open to everyone without requirements of membership. Location independence indicates that the internet is sovereign and thus reports to no particular actor or authority. Minister Tang articulated her vision to adapt these three ideas to Taiwan’s political sphere, and she notes that this will transform Taiwan from a “clash between ideologies into a plurality of voices.”
Minister Tang advocates for the use of civic technology as a tool to achieve increased collaborative governance in Taiwan. Civic technology enables citizens to collaborate more effectively and easily interact with the government towards the collective goal of policy development. Taiwan has been ranked highly for its internet participation and open data, for which the Minister credits the new administration’s commitment to open government, crowdsourcing and collective intelligence over the past four years. Notably, the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan was one of the initial examples of civic technology in action. This movement occurred between March and April of 2014, when Taiwanese students voiced their opposition to the refusal of Members of Parliament to openly deliberate about the “Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement”. Students convened and occupied Parliament in protest, and they also mobilized through online forums, which enabled them to communicate openly and contribute their ideas towards resolving the controversies relating to this trade agreement. Ultimately, the Taiwanese government adopted the recommendations of the students, illustrating how civic technology provides Taiwanese society with a voice in the political process, and how consensus can be reached between differing viewpoints on contentious issues.
Minister Tang also discussed her involvement in g0v (“gov-zero”) and its role in encouraging civic participation in government through technology. G0v was successfully used during the Sunflower Movement, and later integrated into Taiwanese governance by the Minister. G0v is a “shadow” website to official Taiwanese government websites, and it enables the public to access and easily understand government policies, programmes, and initiatives. Participation in g0v has enabled citizens to “fork” the government, a process which the Minister describes as taking existing policies and modifying them to better reflect the desires of the Taiwanese public.
Minister Tang fielded a question from the audience regarding cyber and data security measures in Taiwan. The Minister stated that “white-hat hackers” are consistently employed to test for potential vulnerabilities on all major government projects and software programs. According to Minister Tang, these hackers are highly esteemed in Taiwanese society and extremely well-paid, ensuring that they restrict their tech-savvy skills to constructive purposes and are not tempted to join “the dark side”. The work of these hackers ultimately ensures the security and robustness of online government systems.
The Minister also discussed another Taiwanese government initiative that seeks to encourage civic engagement. Participation Officers (POs) strives to listen to complaints from civil society regarding government operations, specifically by holding collaborative workshops in response to e-petitions and both in-person and online complaints. This illustrates how the use of technology provides citizens with access to government personnel, and thus an outlet to discuss concerns and explore solutions.
Towards the end of the event, Minister Tang mentioned the topic of disinformation and the steps Taiwan is taking to prevent the proliferation of false information. The government chooses to use the term “disinformation” rather than “fake news”, because the latter carries a negative connotation about the role of journalists in society. The Minister believes that journalists are essential to a democracy, and should not be disparaged. Minister Tang also argues that disinformation is not only often intentional and factually incorrect, its spread can also be harmful for its readers. In fact, disinformation can attack the foundation of trust in a democratic society. Taiwan is utilizing new innovations to fight the spread of disinformation, and provide clarity on contentious socio-political issues, as exhibited through online forums such as CoFacts and the Taiwan Fact Checking Center (TFCC). These sites help to produce a timely government response to the spread of disinformation, and provide “evidenced-based” clarifications with regards to emerging rumors.
Minister Tang’s dedication to social innovation through collaborative governance and civic consensus is illustrated in her self-identification as a “conservative anarchist”. She states that she neither takes nor gives orders. Rather, she seeks to promote an environment where a plurality of voices is heard as a means of reaching consensus in the policy process and in state-society relations. The Minister offers an optimistic outlook on Taiwan’s civic involvement and digital future, and she expressed her faith in working to promote a stronger democracy in the years to come.
Leah Gibbins is an event reporter for the Synergy Journal of Contemporary Asian Studies.
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