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Local elections

Taipei’s mayoral debate, sentence by sentence: half of it was attack and defence; Chiang talked about what he has done, Shen about what he would do

We split the transcript of Taipei’s 31 October mayoral debate into 711 sentences and coded each one: 50.6% of what Puma Shen said and 46.4% of what Chiang Wan-an said was attacking the other or rebutting. Concrete policy made up 17.8% of Shen’s words; Chiang’s record in office made up 22.4% of his. Checked against public records, each man was half right about the Gongguan roundabout. Chiang described the Circular metro line, sports centres and the seniors’ card as further along than the city’s own figures show; Shen’s free drop-in childcare pledge faces a staffing gap of about 300,000 hours a week, and we found no source for his “7% attendance” figure.

Published 2026-10-31 · 43 sources

Justice and technology

Judges get Copilot, defendants write appeals with AI: how AI entered Taiwan’s courts through two doors

In 2023 the Judicial Yuan wanted AI to write draft judgments in drink-driving and mule-account cases; after objections the plan was put on hold, and it has never gone live. But in August this year the Judicial Yuan gave every judge in Taiwan Microsoft 365 Copilot, and on 18 September it sent a letter warning judges not to use AI to generate judgments. On the other side of the courtroom, the Supreme Court dismissed a cash courier’s appeal that appeared to have been written by AI, and the Taipei District Court for the first time fined a litigant for abusive AI filings, imposing a penalty of NT$30,000. A new experiment shows that professionals went along with the AI’s leaning 86% of the time: “human review” is not necessarily an independent check.

Published 2026-10-31 · 31 sources

Work and technology

“I just asked AI”: when Taiwan’s office workers hand their judgement to AI, who stops learning and who takes the blame

An experiment published in October found that professional analysts followed an AI’s randomly assigned leaning 86% of the time; 77% used the AI’s arguments, and only 15% mentioned the AI. We read 39 threads and 17 posts from this year on PTT and Dcard: managers open with “I just asked AI”, new hires answer “because the AI said it was better”, engineers no longer read code line by line, and companies make AI usage a KPI while capping how much staff can use. The forums agree that when things go wrong, people still take the blame; surveys show that 64% of Taiwanese employees have used AI, but only 20% of non-managers feel they have enough learning resources.

Published 2026-10-31 · 33 sources

Society

Taiwan’s birth rate is heading toward 0.5. Why does nobody seem to care?

Two years ago Taiwan still had more births per head than South Korea; in January–August 2026 Korea recorded 3.14 times as many births. Taiwan’s fertility rate fell to 0.695 in 2025, the world’s lowest, births in January–September 2026 fell another 14.7%, and marriages are still falling, in a country where only 4.49% of babies are born outside marriage. We read about 150 forum threads and more than 35,000 comments from inside and outside Taiwan. Foreigners asked how a peaceful, prosperous place could end up here; Taiwanese users mostly answered with sarcasm, and explained the apathy themselves. A NT$5,000-a-month child allowance starts next year; online, it drew far more mockery than hope.

Published 2026-10-30 · 70 sources

World

From switching off Russian to a helmet at the Olympics: how Ukrainians online have argued over what counts as "ours"

In the fifth year of the war, how do Ukrainians argue online about language and culture? We read a year of discussion on the IT community DOU, on Reddit and on the file-sharing forum Toloka: a browser extension to make the internet "speak Ukrainian" drew 1,074 comments, a company that switched off Russian lost 220,000 users a month, and there were rows over a blackout song, Eurovision, an Olympic memorial helmet and a Metro game without Russian. The fiercest arguments were often between Ukrainians themselves.

Published 2026-10-26 · 37 sources

World

What do I owe the state? How Ukrainians online have argued over elections, peace talks and allies

In the fifth year of the war, Ukrainians online argue not only about daily life but about the state itself. We read 17 political threads and about 3,200 comments on DOU and Reddit: a 1,029-comment debate on "what do I owe the state", the sacking of Mykhailo Fedorov and wartime elections, trading the Donbas for peace, and disappointment with Trump, Poland and the EU. Forums and polls often point in opposite directions: 61% in a DOU site poll want elections "now", against 15% in a national survey.

Published 2026-10-26 · 47 sources

World

From buying a deferment to the blackout bill: how Ukrainians online have argued over the cost of staying

In the fifth year of the war, what are Ukrainians arguing about online? We read 19 threads and about 2,700 comments from the past year on DOU, the IT community forum, and on Ukrainian-language Reddit: a proposal to "pay $1,500 a month for a deferment", men aged 18 to 22 going abroad, a migrant wave that never happened, a petition to conscript women, and heating cuts, fares and inflation. At the heart of the opposition, more often than morality, lies distrust of state institutions.

Published 2026-10-24 · 30 sources

World

One riot, five French forums, five different worlds

On 17 October 2026 a nationwide protest in France over fuel prices and failing schools turned into some of the worst riots in decades. We pieced together the background from Reuters, CNN, franceinfo and other outlets, then read about 2,000 posts on five French-language forums: the youth forum blames the left and immigrants, Reddit and Mastodon blame the police and the government, and an older forum debates self-defence and the army. Their only common ground: everyone is calculating who wins the 2027 presidential election.

Published 2026-10-22 · 42 sources