Humour over rumour

1. 1

   Within 2 hours, with 2 images: the rule for answering every trending rumour, with very short text, ideally humour, and the official signature.

2. 2

   In September 2018, a rumour about rescuing Taiwanese at a Japanese airport flooded social media and was followed by the death of a diplomat criticised over it.

3. 3

   Three months later, the government told every ministry to set up a rapid-response team.

4. 4

   Cofacts, an open fact-checking bot on LINE, and the Taiwan FactCheck Center checked independently; the government avoided taking content down.

5. 5

   Answer within the same news cycle, with a correction easier to share than the rumour, and leave fact-checking to people independent of power.

Copy summary

If you're new to this, start with the fundamentals, from the vote goal to what the research says. Read the fundamentals

The method was born inside government, but it only worked because civil society did its own checking. The teams in each ministry were almost never named.

• Audrey Tang

  Minister without portfolio (2016–2022) and first Minister of Digital Affairs (2022–2024)

  Proposed “humor over rumor” to the cabinet in 2017, set out the two-hour rule and explained the method in dozens of interviews, all transcribed and published.

  Sources

• Kolas Yotaka

  Executive Yuan spokesperson (Jul 2018–May 2020)

  Ran the operational side of the response to disinformation and put the “triple-two” rule into practice across ministries.

  Sources

• Su Tseng-chang

  Premier during the 2020 pandemic

  Became the face of the memes: laughed at himself to calm a run on toilet paper and answered a rumour about fines for perms in under an hour.

  Sources

• Johnson Liang and Billion Lee

  Founders of Cofacts (g0v community)

  In 2017 they built a LINE bot that receives suspicious messages and returns fact-checks written by volunteers, with an open database and open code.

  Sources

• Taiwan FactCheck Center (Summer Chen, Eve Chiu)

  Independent fact-checker, founded in 2018

  A newsroom of journalists that publishes full fact-checks, refuses money from governments and parties, and has been an IFCN signatory since November 2018.

  Sources

• Charles Yeh (MyGoPen)

  Founder of a fact-checking service on LINE

  Started a blog in 2015 to help his mother-in-law spot scams; by 2020 the service had more than 300,000 LINE subscribers.

  Sources

• Participation officer at the Ministry of Health

  Civil servant who made the ministry's memes (name not disclosed)

  Made the memes, suggested the minister wear a pink mask in solidarity with a boy, and owns Zongchai, the spokesdog.

  Sources

What the authors of the method said about it. Paraphrases, with the interview and the date; short quotes are given in the original where it was English.

• When a rumour trends, the responsible ministry must publish two images, each of 200 characters or less, within two hours — in the same news cycle. That is the “triple-two” principle.

  Audrey Tang, Interview with the Associated Press, 10 Dec 2020

• The idea came up in 2017, but uptake was lukewarm: officials did not think rumours were serious enough. It gained ground before the 2018 elections and referendums, with Kolas Yotaka.

  Audrey Tang, Interview with the Associated Press, 10 Dec 2020

• People who laugh at a correction vent their anger into humour and become less receptive to outrage. That is why the correction gets shared more than the rumour.

  Audrey Tang, Conversation with Aaron Huang, 20 Jan 2020

• The commitment is at most two hours for each trending rumour; many ministries already manage it in 60 minutes. “We're memetic engineers, too.”

  Audrey Tang, Conversation with Aaron Huang, 20 Jan 2020

In September 2018, a typhoon flooded Kansai Airport in Japan. On PTT, a story spread that China had rescued Taiwanese travellers with 15 buses while Taiwan's office in Osaka did nothing. It was false, but it was repeated by Taiwanese outlets and by Chinese state media. The head of the office, Su Chii-cherng, took his own life on 14 September, the day of an internal review meeting on the incident. His widow later said the note did not directly mention pressure from the fake news, but that he did not want to be humiliated or unfairly punished, and she accused politicians of distorting the facts. The case showed the government that a slow denial, in press-release form, does not reach the people spreading a rumour.

2 h

maximum response time to a trending rumour; many ministries already did it in 60 min (Jan 2020)official

46,000

messages sent to Cofacts in three months of 2018; 35,180 answered automaticallyplatform figure

1,500+

clarifications sent back by LINE to people who flagged rumours, by 20 Jan 2020platform figure

60%

of 2018 voters had never heard of the government's clarification service, or never used itstudy

From a tragic rumour to a system

1. 2017Audrey Tang proposes to the cabinet that rumours be answered with humour; uptake is lukewarm. Cofacts is born, with a g0v civic-tech prototype grant.
2. 16 Jul 2018Kolas Yotaka, a former journalist, becomes Executive Yuan spokesperson.
3. 5–15 Sep 2018The Kansai rumour spreads on the 5th; the director of the Osaka office dies around the 14th; the Taiwan FactCheck Center publishes its check on the 15th.
4. 24 Nov 2018Local elections with referendums, full of rumours. Afterwards, more than half of voters could not tell the correct version of the main fake stories.
5. 13 Dec 2018Premier Lai Ching-te orders every ministry to set up a dedicated rapid-response team: spokesperson, monitoring, writing, design, video, press and social media.
6. 2019TFC becomes Facebook's first fact-checking partner in Taiwan (May). With LINE Today, the government tests the two-hour rule and finds that answering within one hour works best.
7. 31 Dec 2019Parliament passes the Anti-Infiltration Act 67–0, boycotted by the KMT, which says it threatens freedoms.
8. 11 Jan 2020Tsai Ing-wen is re-elected with 57.13% on 74.9% turnout. Rumours about CIA invisible ink are debunked with chemistry teachers and YouTubers filming the count.
9. Feb–Apr 2020In the pandemic the method becomes a showcase: the premier's meme against the toilet-paper run, Zongchai the spokesdog, and the pink masks.
10. Dec 2025TFC, with 14 staff and 200 to 300 fact-check requests a day, is in crisis: Meta, which paid almost half its budget, may end the contract in January 2026.

Three layers

The government answered fast, but it did not decide what was true for society. Each layer had its own role.

• GovernmentRapid-response teams in each ministry, coordinated by the cabinet spokesperson: short clarifications, with humour, under the official identity.
• Independent fact-checkersTaiwan FactCheck Center (journalists), MyGoPen and Rumor & Truth: full fact-checks, with no money from governments or parties.
• Community and platformsCofacts volunteers answering on LINE; LINE, Facebook and Google displaying fact-checks and publishing political ads in the open.

The method fitted a country highly exposed to disinformation, with closed messaging networks and a strong technical civil society. Knowing this helps you choose what to swap in your own context.

Platforms

LINE

The dominant messaging app (about 17 million users in 2018). Rumours travelled in closed family groups, invisible to journalists and platforms, so fact-checking had to get inside LINE itself.

Facebook

Where each ministry posted its memes. In 2020 Meta published a real-time ad library and reduced the reach of whatever fact-checkers flagged as false.

PTT

Taiwan’s big forum, where the Kansai rumour took off in 2018. It began on a Weibo account in mainland China and the first PTT post came from a mainland Chinese photojournalist; but the account that accused the Osaka office of neglect belonged, according to police, to a Taiwanese university student (later acquitted), and prosecutors alleged that an influencer linked to the governing DPP paid members of a LINE group to spread false information.

LINE Today

LINE's news portal, a government partner for publishing answers to rumours within an hour.

Cofacts and MyGoPen

Fact-checking bots inside LINE: you forward the suspicious message and get the answer in the same chat.

YouTube and livestreams

During the 2020 count, YouTubers from across the political spectrum filmed the tally and jointly confirmed it was clean.

Local conditions

• V-Dem has ranked Taiwan as the place most exposed to foreign disinformation in the world, mostly from China, for 11 years in a row.
• Polarised television: in a 2018 study, viewers of pro-unification channels were more likely to believe fake news.
• An organised civic-tech community (g0v) that builds open, volunteer-run tools.
• A meme culture (“梗”) the government learned to use, and a premier willing to laugh at himself.
• Elections every two years, often with referendums, which create predictable rumour cycles.
• A government that preferred answering and adding context to taking content down, while also passing laws against foreign interference that free-speech advocates criticised.

Audrey Tang summed it up in three words: fast, fair and fun. In practice, a correction that arrives within the same news cycle, is easier to share than the rumour, and leaves fact-checking to people who are independent.

Three fronts

Fast

Answer within the same news cycle (two hours at most, ideally one) so journalists can publish both sides without waiting for the government.

Fun

Swap outrage for laughter. A funny, harmless correction gets shared by people who never even saw the rumour, and works like a vaccine.

Fair

Do not take down: add context. Leave fact-checking to an independent, open civil society, and always sign with your own name.

The life of a rumour

Every trending rumour went through the same steps, with the clock running from the moment it was detected.

1. Detect Monitor trending topics, forums, the press, and what people flag in fact-checking bots and on the LINE dashboard.
2. Triage Decide whether the rumour is really growing and who should answer: the ministry that owns the topic, not a central office.
3. Confirm Gather the correct fact and its source: official data, the company involved, an expert. For the invisible-ink rumour, it was chemistry teachers.
4. Produce Two images, very short text, ideally with humour: laughing at the situation or at yourself, never at the people who believed it.
5. Sign and publish On the official account of whoever is responsible, under their identity, and on partner channels such as LINE Today.
6. Take it to the press Send the clarification to the journalists covering the story before the news cycle closes.
7. Send it back to the groups Get the correction back to where the rumour travelled: bots that answer in groups, notices to people who flagged it, private messages to people who shared it.
8. Log it Record detection time, response time, reach and source. That is what lets you learn and prove you answered.

And again.

How to set up a rapid-response cell for the press office of a campaign, a cause or an organisation, using what Taiwan learned and respecting the rules on this page.

What works anywhere and what has to be swapped. Remember that Taiwan did this from government; in a campaign or a cause the functions are the same, but the authority is smaller.

Choose your country

Pick the moves that fit your context and add them to your kit. Each one works on its own or combined with moves from other playbooks.

1. A response cell that answers within two hours

   A team with clear roles (spokesperson, monitoring, fact-checking, writing, design, press) answers every trending rumour within the same news cycle, with the clock running from detection. In Taiwan the rule was two hours at most, and by January 2020 many ministries were doing it in 60 minutes.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works on high-risk dates (debates, votes, crises), when predictable rumours appear and a slow answer leaves the rumour alone in the news.

   Don't use when

   It fails if every answer waits for one person to approve it, or if the team answers every rumour and gives reach to ones that were not growing.

   1. Week −12 Define the roles and two approvers with equal authority
   2. Week −11 Open the log: rumour, time detected, time answered, source, piece, reach
   3. Week −10 Build the list of primary sources and experts with direct contacts
   4. Week −8 Drill the cycle: detect, triage, confirm, produce, sign and publish, log
   5. Week −2 Reinforce the shifts in the highest-risk weeks
   6. D-day week Meet for 15 minutes every day at 9am to review the last 24 hours

   Team

   • Lead spokesperson: decides whether and how to answer, approves the text
   • Rumour watch: monitors in shifts and opens each case with a timestamp
   • Fact-checking: gathers the correct fact and primary source in 30 minutes

   What to measure: Trending rumours answered within the two-hour limit, with detection and response times in the log.

   Risks to watch: Answering everything amplifies small rumours and rushed answers get things wrong: triage before posting, and a legal and ethics check on every piece.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

2. A funny correction with no victim

   Two images, very short text, the true fact on top and a joke at the situation's or your own expense, never at those who believed it, signed with the official identity. For Audrey Tang, people who laugh at a correction vent their anger through humour, and the correction gets shared more than the rumour.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works when the topic allows for humour and the audience has a meme culture the team knows.

   Don't use when

   It fails with deaths, serious illness or violence (there, be fast and serious), or when the joke humiliates those who shared.

   1. Week −10 Create two-image templates per format, with branding and signature
   2. Week −9 Prepare pre-approved pieces for the calendar's predictable rumours
   3. Week −8 Test the tone of humour with people outside the team
   4. Week −6 Make versions for older audiences and the community's other languages
   5. Week −2 Post on official accounts and pass to the distribution network
   6. D-day week On polling day, have pieces ready on polling place, date and voting rules

   Team

   • Writing and humour: writes the two or three lines and the joke
   • Design and video: turns the text into two images or a short video
   • Distribution network: takes the correction to family and neighbourhood groups

   What to measure: Distribution-network volunteers who took the correction into a closed group from their own accounts, counted in the coordination group.

   Risks to watch: Accounts posing as ordinary citizens destroy trust: always sign with name and role, and no bots or bought accounts to spread the joke.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

3. A tip line inside the messaging app

   A number or bot in the dominant app where people forward a suspicious message and get the answer in the same chat, because rumours spread in closed groups no outsider can see. Cofacts received 46,000 messages in three months of 2018 and answered 35,180 automatically.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works where rumours run through family and neighbourhood groups on an encrypted messaging app.

   Don't use when

   It fails without people to answer (Cofacts had fewer than 12 active editors a week), or if personal data from messages gets published.

   1. Week −12 Choose the dominant app and open the tip number or bot
   2. Week −10 Promote the line to supporters and the public with one simple instruction
   3. Week −9 Set the responders' rota and template answers
   4. Week −8 Strip personal data from messages before using them
   5. Week −4 Send each correction back to whoever asked
   6. D-day week Reinforce the rota in the week of the vote
   7. 1 week(s) after After the vote, review the most frequent questions

   Team

   • Line owner: runs the bot or number and the rota
   • Responders: send the correction back to whoever asked
   • Data protection: removes personal information and keeps only what is needed

   What to measure: Suspicious messages forwarded by the public and answered back to the sender, counted on the line.

   Risks to watch: Incoming messages may hold personal data: strip it before publishing, and only message people who asked (GDPR or local law).

   Add to my kitIn my kit

4. Brief the press within the same cycle

   Send the clarification and an available spokesperson to the journalists already covering the story, before the cycle closes, and leave full fact-checking to independent checkers. In the government’s reading, the Kansai crisis grew because the response was slow and came in a press release that never reached the people spreading the rumour.

   How to set it up, step by step

   Works when

   It works when the press is publishing the rumour and needs the other side in time.

   Don't use when

   It fails if your organisation tries to dictate the fact-check or pressures checkers, or asks for takedowns instead of context.

   1. Week −10 Build the list of journalists by topic and region and a single press address
   2. Week −9 Map independent fact-checkers and agree how to send them evidence
   3. Week −8 Name the on-call spokesperson for each time slot
   4. Week −4 Send the clarification to those covering the story, with the primary source
   5. Week −1 On the eve of the vote, reinforce on-call cover and contacts
   6. D-day week On the day, log who asked for the spokesperson or the source

   Team

   • Press relations: keeps the list and sends the clarifications
   • On-call spokesperson: takes journalists' calls within the news cycle
   • Fact-checker liaison: sends evidence, never asks favours

   What to measure: Journalists and fact-checkers who asked for the spokesperson or primary source within the news cycle, counted in the press list.

   Risks to watch: A campaign is an interested party: never pressure or covertly fund fact-checkers, and prefer context to takedown requests.

   Add to my kitIn my kit

How to set up a rapid-response cell before an election, a vote or a cause campaign. Your progress is saved in this browser.

The method works because people trust whoever is correcting. Anything that looks like manipulation destroys that trust.

Say who is speaking

Every correction goes out with the name and title of whoever signs it. No anonymous accounts or profiles pretending to be citizens.

Real people only

No fake profiles, bots, bought accounts or undisclosed paid influencers. Coordinating real people to say what they think is allowed; what platforms punish is organizing likes, follows or hashtags to game the algorithm. X, for example, bans trading engagement and using a trending hashtag to manipulate the conversation.

Facts with sources

Every correction shows who confirms it. If you don't know yet, say you are checking; don't make it up.

Humour without victims

Laugh at the situation or at yourself. Never at those who believed it, at minorities, at the sick or at the dead.

Add context

Prefer adding context to asking for removal. Removal only for what is already illegal, through the courts.

Fact-checker independence

Don't pressure, secretly fund or attack fact-checkers. Send evidence.

Data protection

Messages received on the tip line may contain personal data: remove it before publishing and keep only what is necessary (LGPD, GDPR).

Consent

Only message people who asked, and only join groups you were invited to.

Label AI

Images or voices made with AI are labelled as such. No deepfakes, not even as a joke.

Local law

Electoral and political advertising law differs from country to country. In the European Union, Meta and Google stopped accepting political ads in 2025, and Regulation (EU) 2024/900 requires a label and a transparency notice on any political advertising still paid for. Check with a lawyer.

It was run by a government

Taiwan answered with the authority of the state and access to official data. A campaign is an interested party: its correction is worth less than an independent fact-checker's.

The effect has not been measured

No published study measures whether the memes reduced belief in rumours. A 2024 thesis found more goodwill and positive comments, but did not measure accuracy; in 2018, 60% of voters had never heard of the government's clarification service.

Closed groups stay dark

LINE is end-to-end encrypted. You only see what people choose to flag, and Cofacts had fewer than 12 active editors a week for hundreds of new messages.

Cute can soften too much

Journalist Brian Hioe noted that the cute aesthetic helped soften intrusive measures; memes can oversimplify and dull critical thinking.

It depends on other people's money

In December 2025, TFC depended on Meta for almost half its budget and on Google for more than 30%; whether the Meta contract was renewed in 2026 has not been verified.

Laws can go too far

The Anti-Infiltration Act (2019) and later proposals were criticised as a threat to free expression; a 2022 bill to fine platforms was shelved.

It doesn't fix the source

Even fact-checkers could not prove where most of the 2020 rumours came from. Answering well does not replace a free press, media education and investigation.

Five questions to confirm the essentials. Each answer comes with an explanation.

This playbook was built mainly from the public transcripts of Audrey Tang's interviews, Taiwanese reporting from 2018 to 2020 on the Executive Yuan's system, the fact-checkers' own materials and academic studies. Pages consulted on 26 October 2026.

Updated 26 October 2026