Comment: Ban short video platform? Young people are more alienated from the DPP

　　China News Service, Beijing, February 4th: Question: Ban short video platforms? Young people are more alienated from the DPP

　　China News Service reporter Rong Haisheng

　　After the two elections in Taiwan in 2024, calls within the Democratic Progressive Party to control a certain short video platform have revived. Some politicians blame the loss of youth votes on social platforms for "affecting voter identification." After the "nine-in-one" electoral defeat two years ago, the Democratic Progressive Party has pointed its finger at the short video platform. A similar drama has been staged again, and it has become more and more obvious that it is in a panic and has no choice but to lose young people's disengagement.

　　From the "Sunflower Student Movement" ten years ago to the following years when it relied on the "blessing" of young people to gain clear advantages in elections, the DPP was once followed by many young people in Taiwan. However, before and after this election, polls and public opinion showed that young people no longer have a favorable impression of the DPP authorities and are even drifting away from them. To find the real culprit, the DPP should turn to itself.

　　Since the DPP came to power, chaos has emerged one after another. With high housing prices, low wages and inflation, and hundreds of "shortages" to be filled, the ruling party has failed to deliver a passing answer on people's livelihood issues, and its pre-election promises have repeatedly turned into "guava votes (officially known as blank checks)"; vaccine procurement, Incidents such as plagiarism and high-level corruption have been responded to with absurd measures and ambiguous attitudes, and the image of injustice has gradually taken root in people's hearts. The policy of extending compulsory military service, which was implemented at the beginning of this year, has further exacerbated young people's uneasiness about their development and future.

　　It is not surprising that the DPP was hit hard by the loss of young voters in this election.

　　Facing the loss of seats in Taiwan's legislative body, some DPP politicians are prepared to treat the short video platform favored by young people as "war criminals" and hype up the popular "Subject Three" as a "dance to unify Taiwan". The department's "Investigation Bureau" has established a research center to counter the so-called "cognitive warfare"... and other similar things, which not only fail to explain the loss of youth votes, but even expose its embarrassment of exhaustion of means.

　　As Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao" pointed out, if the DPP does not respond to and improve the immediate issues that young people really care about, it will continue to face the challenge of losing young votes in the "nine-in-one" election two years later.

　　The growing alienation among young people from the Democratic Progressive Party can also be seen as a glimpse of the distrust of the authorities among the majority of the people on the island. Which social media platforms do Taiwanese young people access and love to use? Can political means stop them? It is conceivable that the DPP's "green terror" cannot intimidate young people with active minds, and will definitely arouse greater resentment among Taiwanese people. (over)