Last year, the Taiwanese government banned RedNote (小紅書) in Taiwan, prompting public debate over the rationale for the ban, its effectiveness, and whether the measure was proportionate. At the same time, the United States was seeking a framework that could address the national security risks posed by TikTok while still allowing the platform to continue operating.
In a recent article “Lessons from Taiwan’s Platform Governance Challenge” published in Just Security, the legal and public policy analysis platform run by New York University School of Law, You-Hao Lai, Deputy Director of the Democratic Governance Program at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET), examines Taiwan’s governance dilemma and broader policy considerations in responding to the risks posed by Chinese platforms.
Lai argues that the RedNote (小紅書) controversy highlights Taiwan’s platform governance dilemma. On the one hand, Taiwan must respond to China’s sustained information interference; on the other, it remains constrained by legal, political, and market conditions that make it difficult to establish a governance framework that is both effective and democratically legitimate. This, he notes, is not merely an issue concerning one particular platform, but a broader test of how democratic systems respond to authoritarian digital influence.
The article further argues that platforms operated by Chinese companies pose structural risks beyond those associated with ordinary transnational platforms. Even when some services are operated through entities registered in places such as Singapore, their privacy policies and data handling arrangements may still allow overseas user data to flow back to China and become subject to PRC national security laws and algorithmic governance rules. These risks concern not only personal data and privacy, but also the possibility that recommendation systems and content ranking mechanisms could gradually shape the information environment of democratic societies.
Lai also points out that Taiwan faces a governance challenge shaped by the intersection of institutional, political, and economic constraints. Existing regulatory tools struggle to keep pace with the speed and scale of manipulation on social media platforms. At the same time, Taiwan’s political parties remain deeply divided on China policy, making it difficult to build stable consensus around regulation. Combined with Taiwan’s relatively limited market size, these conditions make it harder for the government to impose stronger requirements on transnational platforms without broad public support.
While the U.S. response to TikTok offers useful reference points, the article notes that Taiwan cannot simply replicate the ownership-based model pursued by the United States. For democratic middle powers, a more relevant lesson lies in an operations-based governance approach focused on data protection, safeguards for cross-border data transfers, algorithmic transparency, transparency reporting, and third-party verification.
Lai argues that Taiwan should move toward an operations-centered regulatory approach and develop a more legitimate and workable institutional response grounded in clear legal authority, due process, independent judicial review, and proportionality.
In January 2026, Lai also published the policy report “The Authoritarian Gaze: Chinaʼs Global Data Reach and the Systemic Risks to Democracy”, which proposed a “DSR Strategy” for democratic countries responding to China’s digital risks. His latest Just Security article builds on that work by extending the discussion from Chinese AI services to broader platform governance through the cases of RedNote and TikTok.
