Taiwan's digital democracy experiment, mobile verification ensures the authenticity of citizen participation.
Former Minister of Digital Development Tang Feng was interviewed by veteran journalist Takehiko Koyanagi from Nikkei News at the WebX 2025 conference, delving into how Taiwan uses blockchain technology to reshape its digital democracy governance model. The dialogue focused on Taiwan's innovative practices in the digital governance industry, showcasing the unique solutions of East Asian democratic countries in facing challenges in the digital age.
Note: Due to the excessive number of participants in this event, (Crypto City) editors could only shoot from a distance, resulting in lower quality, but it does not affect the sharing of quality content.
Tang Feng elaborated on the innovative citizen participation mechanism promoted by Taiwan, where the key design is to ensure the authenticity of participant identities through a mobile SMS number verification system. Under this system, citizens must provide identification documents and complete a rigorous verification process to obtain an SMS number. This seemingly simple mechanism effectively serves as an indicator to distinguish between real humans and robots, effectively preventing automated programs from interfering with the integrity of democratic processes.
In last year's citizen deliberation experiment, thousands of volunteers actively signed up to participate. After statistical selection methods, 450 representative Taiwanese citizens were ultimately chosen to ensure that the sample could reflect the diverse composition of Taiwanese society. This sampling method is akin to rigorous public opinion surveys, but the depth of participation far exceeds traditional polls. These participants were divided into 45 small groups of 10 people each, to engage in in-depth discussions and deliberations on major issues facing society today.
Innovations in deepfake fraud governance, with advertisements preset as fraudulent until digital signatures are proven.
In a thematic discussion addressing deepfake fraud, citizen representatives proposed highly innovative solutions after thorough discussions. They suggested that all online advertisements should be preset as fraudulent content unless advertisers can provide digital signatures to prove their authenticity and legality. This governance thinking of 'doubt first, trust later' completely overturns traditional regulatory logic, showcasing the pragmatic characteristics and innovative spirit of Taiwan's digital democracy.
The logic behind this proposal is that instead of passively identifying and removing fraudulent advertisements, it is better to proactively require that all advertisements must pass technical verification. Digital signature technology can ensure the traceability of the source of advertisement content while establishing a responsibility mechanism for advertisers. Once false advertising or fraudulent behavior is discovered, relevant responsibilities can be clearly assigned, significantly enhancing the credibility of the online advertising ecosystem.
Tang Feng particularly emphasized that the core value of this citizen deliberation system lies in balancing different viewpoints and fairly describing the needs of all parties, which aligns closely with the long-standing Hutchins Commission principles followed by the news industry.
Just as quality newspapers publish objectively recognized facts on the front page and present the best arguments and rebuttals from different positions in the second edition, Taiwan's practice of digital democracy also follows the same balanced reporting logic, ensuring that diverse voices are fully heard and considered in the decision-making process.
Integrating blockchain technology into public governance to enhance government transparency and accountability.
Speaking about the specific applications of blockchain in digital governance, Tang Feng stated that the Taiwanese government has widely integrated distributed ledger technology into various public services. Particularly in the public works industry, where a high level of integrity is required, blockchain technology can provide an unalterable record-keeping mechanism, leaving permanent and verifiable digital footprints at every stage from project bidding, construction process to acceptance results.
The value of this technological application far exceeds traditional paper records or centralized database systems. Through decentralized storage and cryptographic verification, every step of the government decision-making process becomes transparent and traceable, and any attempts to alter records will be automatically detected by the system. Citizens no longer need to rely on the government's unilateral statement but can directly verify the true situation of policy implementation, significantly enhancing government transparency and accountability.
Tang Feng further pointed out that the core value of blockchain technology lies in establishing a decentralized trust mechanism, which aligns with the basic spirit of 'checks and balances' in democratic systems. When the government cannot unilaterally control or modify records, citizen oversight becomes more effective, and the trust relationship between the government and the public becomes more solid.
Global promotion of digital democracy models and cross-national experience exchange to foster institutional innovation.
Tang Feng revealed in the interview that Taiwan's digital democracy model has successfully inspired governance innovation practices in multiple regions around the globe. The most representative case is the citizen participation plan 'What can Bowling Green become?' promoted in Kentucky, USA.
In the current context of highly polarized and severely opposing politics in American society, this methodology originating from Taiwan helps originally divergent groups of people find common ground, proving that digital democracy tools possess universal value that transcends cultural and political differences.
The experiment in Kentucky is particularly noteworthy because the state is relatively conservative within the American political spectrum. The successful application of Taiwan's digital democracy model demonstrates the strong adaptability of this methodology. Participants gradually built consensus and proposed specific community improvement plans through structured dialogue programs, during which political differences gradually gave way to a focus on common interests. This cross-national experience sharing proves that small countries can also play an important role in global governance innovation.
Tang Feng emphasized that digital democracy should not just be an academic theory or policy white paper, but must be a practical tool that can mobilize active public participation. As she metaphorically put it, this methodology is like a recipe, providing concrete and actionable steps that practitioners in different areas can adjust and apply according to local conditions.
Through this dialogue at WebX 2025, Tang Feng demonstrated to the international community how Taiwan balances technological innovation with democratic values during its digital transformation process, providing valuable reference experiences for countries facing similar challenges globally. The digital democracy practice of the 'Taiwan model' is gradually becoming an important governance innovation paradigm that attracts the attention of the international community.
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'WebX2025) Tang Feng discusses Taiwan's digital democracy experiment: How to practice transparent governance through blockchain?' This article was first published in 'Crypto City'.