ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 infodemic has significantly influenced the Taiwan community and worldwide. In addition to the contribution of third-party FactCheck Center, the government also plays a vital role in stopping misinformation. This study examines the Taiwan government’s anti-misinformation messages to analyze the themes and statements. Content analysis and text analysis are adopted to analyze the press release, Facebook, Twitter, and LINE posts of the health-related government authorities. The in-depth interviews of officers are conducted to know the details of refutation to misinformation. The result shows that the government authorities use the infodemic as political propaganda to show how successful the government’s COVID-19 prevention measures are. When the pandemic is not severe, the narrative’s tone is teasing and humorous. The teasing target implicitly and explicitly refers to China. When the pandemic is severe, the style of the descriptions is authoritative. The consequences and fines are often mentioned in the text. Information literacy seems not to be a solution for the authorities. Policy implications and media literacy for COVID-19 risk reduction are provided.
