Understanding Voter Fraud Misinformation Videos during the 2024 Taiwan Election on YouTube

Although voter fraud misinformation in the U.S. has been extensively studied, fewer research studies have investigated voter fraud misinformation in Taiwan’s elections. In this study, we present a mixed-method analysis of video-based voter fraud misinformation during the 2024 Taiwan election on YouTube. We develop a computational pipeline to identify video accounts with different political leanings that may produce election-related misinformation, collect the videos uploaded by these accounts, and automatically determine which videos are related to ballots with the assistance of Large Language Models. Subsequently, we manually identify voter fraud discussion videos using a codebook we developed. Following this, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of the identified videos. We find that video accounts aligned with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) produce the highest number of videos discussing voter fraud misinformation. Additionally, videos discussing such misinformation tend to receive more comments but fewer likes compared to videos without this content. We also observe that videos associated with the DPP are quite distinct from those linked to the Kuomintang (KMT) or Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), with unique characteristics that may be further revealed through their audio and video features. Finally, we conduct case studies to examine different patterns in videos either supporting or refuting voter fraud misinformation. Among accounts promoting voter fraud claims, traditional media outlets often include misinformation in their news programs, implying tacit endorsement, while grassroots media may present suspicious vote-counting scenes as evidence to spread misinformation. In contrast, traditional and grassroots media accounts associated with the DPP tend to refute misinformation through news programs or influencer commentary. Our work sheds light on the discourse surrounding voter fraud in Taiwan and offers valuable insights into strategies for mitigating the spread of voter fraud misinformation videos globally.