Doublethink Lab is a Taiwan-based think tank that publishes reports on media messaging that it claims is part of propaganda campaigns used by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to influence Taiwan. ¹

Doublethink Lab advocates that web platforms and media strategies identify and censor alleged CCP propaganda distributed and released online. ^{2 3 4}

Background

Doublethink Lab is a Taiwan-based think tank founded in 2019 to analyze media messaging it claims are part of efforts by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to influence Taiwan and Western media. It claims to push back against “disinformation” campaigns used by the PRC and its ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in specific activities including Taiwanese elections. ⁵ The group also publishes online reports it claims are meant to research and identify potential CCP propaganda within foreign media and publications. ⁵

In January 2024, Doublethink Lab cofounder and CEO Wu Ming-shuan was part of an interview by United States Institute of Peace’s Dispatch from Taiwan Podcast, where she discussed the rise in CCP and PRC disinformation and its impact on civil society within Taiwan. She claimed that the CCP’s campaigns “want Taiwanese people [to] believe that you are small, you are powerless, you are isolated…So there’s no way you can stand against [the] great, powerful China. So the best choice you have is [to] shut up, or surrender, or just give whatever they want. They’ve been [telling] us that for maybe seven decades, that’s their narrative repeatedly and repeatedly.” ⁶

Activities

China Index

China Index is a project of Doublethink Lab and the People’s Republic of China in the World Network that publishes data that claims to identify and map the PRC’s influence within international communities by publishing profiles and ranking roughly 82 countries measuring said influence. The project’s committee provides research and reviews surveys from “local experts” on possible PRC influence in the subject country across specific domains including academia, media, military, law enforcement, and politics. ⁷

Tiananmen Trolls

Tiananmen Trolls is a project of Doublethink Lab that publishes information claiming to report on efforts towards “whitewashing” the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre committed by the People’s Republic of China against student protesters. The project argues the PRC engages in a “propaganda” campaign on social media to downplay the CCP’s role in the massacre. The project’s webpage claims to publish information on how to identify and determine if certain messaging is propaganda. ⁸

Censorship Advocacy

Doublethink Lab and media group Information For Change manage an online platform they claim is meant to advise and warn individual and nonprofit organizations on media messaging that is reportedly disinformation. The site includes a checklist that advises to check messaging based on factors such as whether it conforms to “official” narratives, whether it presents itself as novel information, or if it presents information as being a matter of good versus evil. ⁴

Doublethink Lab’s disinformation website publishes instructions for individuals on how to engage in dialogue with individuals to counter alleged disinformation while using interpersonal tactics to avoid confrontation. ³ It also publishes policies it advocates to online platforms on how to censor messaging it claims constitutes disinformation. Such recommendations it advocates include creating a structure that controls what language the platform encourages to be used, targeting specific demographics of its users to push back against accepting certain messaging that is alleged disinformation, and engaging in “counter-narrative” campaigns that opposes language it intends to censor. ²

Leadership

Wu Ming-shuan is a co-founder and the CEO of Doublethink Lab. ¹ He also works as a linguistics and English language development professor at Adelphi University. ⁹

Funding

In 2022, Doublethink Lab received $499,880 grant from the Foundation to Promote Open Society. ¹⁰

1.  “Disinformation: Building Digital Resilience.” United States Institute of Peace, January 12, 2024. https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/01/disinformation-building-digital-resilience.
2. How to build a counter-narrative? Accessed October 21, 2024. https://fight-dis.info/How-to-Build-a-Counter-narratives.html.
3. Disarming dialogue: Countering disinformation through frequent conversation. Accessed October 21, 2024. https://fight-dis.info/Disarming-Dialogue.html.
4. Escape the mist: Disinfo Walkthrough. Accessed October 21, 2024. https://fight-dis.info/#about.
5. “Fighting Chinese Disinfo with Doublethink Lab.” Code for All, August 4, 2024. https://codeforall.org/2023/06/08/fighting-chinese-disinfo-with-doublethink-lab/.
6.   “Disinformation: Building Digital Resilience.” United States Institute of Peace, January 12, 2024. https://www.usip.org/publications/2024/01/disinformation-building-digital-resilience.
7. “China Index 2022.” China In The World. Accessed October 21, 2024. https://china-index.io/.
8. “How to Respond to Tiananmen Trolls.” Doublethink Lab. Accessed October 21, 2024. https://tiananmen-trolls.doublethinklab.org/en/.
9. “Ming-Hsuan Wu.” Adelphi University. Accessed October 21, 2024. https://www.adelphi.edu/faculty/profiles/profile.php?PID=0850.
10. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990PF). Foundation To Promote Open Society. 2022. Part XIV.