Taiwan's "hacker minister" reshaping digital democracy

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Taiwan's "digital minister" Audrey Tang, a computer prodigy and entrepreneur who taught herself programming at age 8, says she's a "civic hacker," who like a locksmith uses specialized skills to help rather than harm.

Appointed by leaders hoping to better connect with young voters who helped sweep independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen into office last year, 35-year-old Tang is using her expertise to more directly involve the public in policymaking, and to counter "fake news."

Keeping the public engaged is crucial given Taiwan's status as a self-ruled democracy of 23 million people that separated from the Chinese mainland amid civil war in 1949.

The approach reflects an effort to encourage deep thinking and listening on a mass scale, unlike the fragmented and "half-baked" ideas often found in social media posts, said Ming-Yeh Rawnsley, a research associate at Centre of Taiwan Studies, SOAS University of London.

While the explosion of social media platforms creates many exciting opportunities for public expression and mass participation, it also leads to a phenomenon where everyone wants to talk, but few care to listen.

Given the ever-present risk of cyberattacks, as digital minister one of the first things Tang did after joining the Cabinet was to make government information systems more secure and then rigorously test them for loopholes.