An Island Divided by Disinformation

Same-sex marriage was legalized with a new law established specifically for gay couples in 2019. It was a significant milestone for gay rights movement, but the journey to achieve this had been a rocky one.

We came a long way

In 2017, the constitutional court in Taiwan ruled that the existing law which prohibited marriage of same sex couples violated the constitutional law. Relevant laws should hence be amended or enacted within two years, if not, same-sex marriage would proceed to be legalized in the Civil Code of Taiwan.

The 2018 referendum was therefore held to decide how same-sex marriage should be legalized--whether it is through the Civil Code or through a separate law. The referendum also asked voters whether homosexuality should be included in primary school education.

Although the constitutional interpretation marked a major progress in gay rights movement in Taiwan, it also resulted in drastic measures taken by anti-gay conservative groups in Taiwan to obstruct the reform.

The result of the 2018 referendum shows strong opposition among Taiwanese voters–67% voted against legalizing same-sex marriage in Civil Code of Taiwan. The inclusion of homosexuality in primary school education was also vetoed.

What does the disinformation narrative tell us?

The 2018 referendum remains to be the most politically engaged referendum in Taiwan until this day. It has the highest turnout among all six referendums since the first one was held in 2004. However, highly disputed topics bring along widespread disinformation.

Led by conservative Christian churches and financed by Cher Wang–the founder of the national phone brand, HTC–disinformation about homosexuality was rampant, dominating the narrative.

I looked into the disinformation data hoping it would provide insights into public opinion about same-sex marriage.

I used the data from Cofacts--a collaborative fact-checking platform in Taiwan that allows users to submit and fact-check disinformation. It keeps a database of potential misinformed messages and their fact-checking results if they are already fact-checked.

I filtered the messages down to ones that were submitted in 2018 and then narrowed the messages to those that contain or related to “homosexuality” and its synonyms (e.g. 同性戀, 男同志, 女同志, LGBT, gay, 同性婚姻, 同婚). It came down to a total of 168 messages, so I went through them one by one and identified several recurring themes.

Here's what I found:

1. The misconception that HIV is a disease exclusively affecting gay men was widely adopted by anti-gay groups. The messages also failed to distinguish HIV from AIDS. It works to further fuel homophobic sentiments by conflating the two.
2. Several core values of Confucianism were used to argue against homosexuality. The messages often cite the traditional Chinese concept of family, marriage and society, as well as the importance of having children to carry on the family line.
3. The mention of Christianity was also prevalent. The messages contained beliefs that homosexuality is a sin and are used to justify their stance against homosexuality.

We also found that disinformation grew in the months leading up to the referendum and peaked in the month the referendum took place. The number of messages containing disinformation about homosexuality went from 1 message in January 2018 to 69 messages in November 2018.

It is clear that disinformation played a significant role in the referendum. Even with the advent of Cofacts, it is impossible to fact-check every single message in time. The result of the referendum was partly the result of the ubiquitous disinformation at the time.

2018 was a chaotic time in Taiwan. Although the majority voted against LGBTQ community, the referendum also shed light on where communication is needed.

“I was very depressed the day the result was out,” said Finney Tseng, a 25-year-old gay woman in Taiwan. “But I told myself that I can’t stay depressed for too long. Because we don’t need more division, what we need is communication.”