Digital Minister Audrey Tang shared her insights on the role of digital diplomacy in strengthening Taiwan’s democracy while healing rifts and creating consensus across society in an op-ed published Oct. 15 by The New York Times.
“In Taiwan, digital technology is boosting civic dialogue and infusing government with the spirit of social innovation,” Tang said in her article entitled A Strong Democracy is a Digital Democracy. More direct communication between the government and the citizenry via online platforms powered by artificial intelligence help inject new ideas while identifying core public service demands, she added.
According to Tang, this form of participatory policymaking is exemplified by Join, an official civic engagement platform using a real-time machine learning tool called Pol.is to analyze votes and produce an interactive map grouping different-minded users. Launched in 2015, the platform successfully tackled issues such as vacancy taxes and drug prescriptions for animals while hosting 10.6 million visitors, almost half of Taiwan’s population.
The government is also working with g0v—a group of civic-minded hackers and coders—to establish vTaiwan, Tang said, adding that it enables various online communities to debate policy solutions and problems in the digital economy. Such engagement often leads to concrete action by the government, Tang said, citing recent regulatory solutions to hurdles involving Uber, online liquor sales and the platform economy, she added.
Tang said another outstanding example is the Presidential Hackathon. Launched in 2018, the tech competition invites hackers to come up with innovative improvements to the country’s public services. Some of the winning submissions from the most recent edition center on shaping a more legible and transparent judicial system, as well as creating an app for improving public understanding of differing penalties for drunken driving.
“Democracy improves as more people participate,” Tang said. “By giving everyone a voice, Taiwan is strengthening its democracy for the future”. (YCH-E)
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