I just want to underline this because there is an instinct to project onto Taiwan as this deeply solidary nation in the face of an oppressor. By this year, yes, but not 10 years ago. Just to refer to some of those numbers you put out: trust in government was at 9% in 2014 and 20% in 2018.
But swift trust online means that we can more, much more readily discover the topics that we each other care about. But then from these topics, then we go into in person strong connections. And one thing about this care is that although of course you can be responsible for someone, care means that you take responsibility yourself.
And I trust that they already gave you the contact window. So, I think the INGO window from the moda is going to be like your one of the most friendly windows. And on our side, the Department of Democracy Network is still around. So, the DN will be your contact window for the rest of the ministry.
And really, just trust the citizens. The citizens mostly have already figured out the right values, the right steering wheel points of direction, for AIs and our technologies and our investment to go to. It was just the citizens have very small amount of bit rate, essentially just a few bits per four years to voice their concerns.
But the more insidious unknown unknowns is the kind that you mentioned, which is the subjective, phenomenological, plural subjects, the harms that changes the fabric of trust , changes the fabric of society, that don’t currently have an institution in charge of that. And that’s, I think, where we should focus our energy on through collective intelligence.
It is a very apt analogy because earthquake is not going to give you a lot of warnings either. They are not like typhoons, but if you work on zero trust architecture, just like in earthquake, we deploy the detection machines as close to the actual centers as possible, then you do get actually a few seconds’ notice.
The people who balance those collecting data is very important. Also, you said if I want to check who had access to my data, I can also see it. That also makes it more transparent and trustworthy . Not only one party can have a look at it. I could also check who’s been looking at my data.
If I may mention a little something here, too, in Taiwan case, I am thinking that collective memories of the successful democratization may have enhanced a strong trust in government among citizens. Maybe if one experienced building a government by social movements, the concept of “We are the players, and we are controlling the government” must be stronger.
In Taiwan, members of IFCN is just MyGoPen and TFCC. There are also other non-IFCN-accredited fact-checking groups available. For example, the Cofacts project from g0v is not a IFCN member, but it is trusted by many. Cofacts also partners, for example, with Trend Micro, which is Taiwan’s leading antivirus company. That’s one example.
That gets us to the next chunk of the interview, which is about trust in government and digital technology. Before we get into that, very quickly, will you tell me again that the people who were flying back into Taiwan or into Taiwan had two options, whether to stay in a hotel or…Tell me again slowly, please.
I guess it really speaks to people’s sheer lack of trust , maybe not even just with each other, but just with local municipality, or state government, or maybe even our medical system, which, as we now know, by today, as of this week, we passed the really grim milestone of 200,000 deaths related to COVID here.
That connects the mask use to the soap use and so on. That together, in a non-disruptive way, reduced R value to under one, in which case, the virus will not spread or the rumor will not spread. I think it is really a societal mobilization. It is hinging the idea of the government trusting the citizens.
As I mentioned, I’m more like a facilitating ambassadorial role to make sure that the social sector and the business sector talk on the same terms. Once they achieve mutual trust , I try to stay out of the specific cases. They will have far more understanding of the specific cases or the specific rumors than I do.
In a democracy, you need to convince millions of people to trust the algorithm in order for the algorithm to take over. In an authoritarian regime, you just need to convince a handful of people which are already primed to accept this kind of logic, that there is somebody who collects all the information and knows best.
We’re basically saying that the government should work with people, trusting people, making itself transparent to the people, that the government should not just say we’re working for people. We know the best. We’re not against government per say, but we’re against this kind of top down way of essentially patriarchal imagination of government.
Including transparency and public trust to provide international aid and coordinate an effective global response alongside the US and its democratic allies and partners. Taiwan has donated millions of masks to parts of the world hit hardest by COVID-19. The Taiwanese research institutions continue to partner on the development of new tests and treatments for the virus.
It need to be radically transparent, meaning that all our work is published online. It is by voluntary association, meaning each ministry choose their own reverse mentor. Random people on the street, but actually people they already trust somewhat. Also location independence, meaning that we don’t just convene in Taipei, but we go around Taiwan to convene.
For many politicians who are more senior or they have a longer involvement in the Taiwan’s democratization, they would not like to hurt that either, whether they’re in opposition or whether they’re in the ruling party. Of course, it aligns with the PRC’s interest if people here don’t trust democracy nor the media.
At any given time where there’s a systemic break of a virus or something, you have to trust the vendor to supply you with the kind of hot patch, and these hot patches are deemed too great a risk, because of that they’re claim Taiwan, I guess, to greater risk to allow into the core infrastructure.
