Nerd Immunity in Taiwan

The 'Infodemic' of false news is proving very dangerous. There have been widely-circulated bogus claims about e.g. the Covid-19 pandemic, the safety of vaccines for this viral infection, the challenges of 5G, the role of lazers in space in relation to California wildfires, honesty of voting systems etc, etc. The term 'fake news' has even been used to denigrate inconvenient accurate statements. False news, not only misinforms, it can actually endanger people and the societies in which they live. Too frequently, social media platforms appear too slow (or even make no attempt), to counter the misinformation they have carried. This is worrying to many governments (especially in the Covid-19 pandemic). The approach taken by Taiwan is particularly impressive and might serve as a model for others (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/17/humour-over-rumour-taiwan-fake-news). Taiwan attempts to 'squash' faked news, using a 2-2-2 'humour over rumour' strategy. They make a response, to the faked news item, within 20 minutes. Speed appears to be of the essence. The government response is encapsulated within 200 words or less and is accompanied by 2 'fun' images. Rapid ridiculing seems a very effective technique for dealing with misinformation. Of course, one would have to be very sure one has the facts right. Attacking something, that later turns out to be true, would quickly destroy faith in the system. The technique also might be less effective in countries with less IT literacy than that prevailing in Taiwan.