Taiwan warns of China’s election meddling as disputed information surges 48%

Taiwan’s intelligence service has put a surge in online manipulation before lawmakers ahead of November’s local elections, reporting more than 2.5 million items of disputed information in the first nine months of 2026. The National Security Bureau’s assessment describes a campaign to collect political intelligence and shape public opinion around candidates, government policy and local disputes.

The written report was delivered to parliament on October 20, according to CNA, ahead of an October 22 hearing with bureau director Tsai Ming-yen. It compares the latest count with more than 1.69 million disputed items in the same period of 2025. Reuters calculated the increase at about 48 percent. The figures are the bureau’s monitoring results; they do not measure votes changed.

The bureau attributes the operations to Beijing and describes a chain from official narratives to mass amplification. State and official media establish themes, it says, while proxy accounts, online operators and public relations firms circulate them through content farms, fabricated websites and coordinated comments. Generated audio and video form part of the alleged toolkit.

Energy, food safety and defence policy were among the subjects identified in CNA’s account of the report. Candidate platforms, public images and the quality of local construction also featured. The bureau says technical collection and human intelligence are being used to track issues, polling and electoral trends, providing material for influence efforts aimed at voters.

The report identifies a shift inside the social platforms it monitors. Facebook accounted for 68.9 percent of the disputed information recorded, compared with 43.6 percent a year earlier. Threads rose from 4.5 to 9 percent. Those are shares of the bureau’s collected material, rather than measurements of every political message on either service.

The cyber figures are a separate warning. Taiwan’s government service network faced an average of more than 2.58 million detected disturbances or intrusion attempts per day through September, the report says. Its chart shows July reaching 185.6 million detections. The bureau says it cannot rule out advance intelligence collection and harassment in preparation for the year-end elections. That wording describes a possible purpose, rather than a demonstrated link for each detection.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately answer Reuters’ request for comment. Beijing has previously denied interfering in Taiwanese elections or spreading disinformation. The contested attribution and the lack of a published measure of electoral impact remain material limits on what can be concluded from the totals.