Can Technology Save Democracy? It’s no secret that democracy is currently facing mounting threats from disinformation, social media and its resulting fragmentation and authoritarian manipulation. Taiwan’s first Digital Minister, Audrey Tang, a pioneer in civic technology, offers a compelling and hopeful solution as well as a path forward.

In a recent talk at GDS 2025, Audrey presented her visionary plan for “plurality technology”—a synergistic, consensus-focused digital infrastructure. It’s designed to restore trust in democracy and outmaneuver the rise of global authoritarianism.

Audrey opened her talk by reframing democracy not as a static system but as an evolving social technology—one that can be continuously redesigned and improved by its users. Audrey witnessed this theory take shape during Taiwan’s 2014 Sunflower Movement, when half a million citizens occupied the legislature in protest. What made this protest significant was its radical transparency: live-streamed deliberations and real-time civic participation set the groundwork for a participatory model of governance that Taiwan has since refined.

According to Audrey, one of the greatest threats to democracy was the shift in 2015 from chronological to algorithmic ‘for you’ feeds on social media. These manipulative systems, designed for engagement at all costs, empower autocracies to reform public opinion using troll farms and parasitic AI swarms. The sad and dangerous result: degrading mutual trust and flooding public discourse with rage and confusion.

Unlike much of the world, Taiwan has responded to this threat with workable, practical solutions. By deploying pro-social platforms like polis—which prioritize consensus over confrontation and by eliminating features that promote polarization—Taiwan boosted public trust in government from just 9% in 2014 to over 70% by 2020. On polis, users see where they agree with others and are encouraged to craft “bridging” statements that unify rather than divide.

This technology has been nothing short of a revelation. For instance, Bowling Green, Kentucky, used polis to engage 10% of its residents in a long-term city planning initiative, revealing and building a strong consensus on community priorities. At the same time, California’s wildfire recovery efforts now include the Engaged California platform, modeled after Taiwan’s system, using “broad listening” techniques to capture diverse perspectives without giving unwelcome amplification to extreme and dangerous views.

Audrey also highlighted Taiwan’s trailblazing youth engagement model. Since 1996, citizens—including students not yet of voting age—have been empowered to propose legislation by gathering 5,000 signatures. A recent example: high school students successfully petitioned for a one-hour delay in school start times, citing scientific research on adolescent sleep cycles.

On the crossroads of AI and democracy, Audrey described an important experiment in confronting and defeating deepfake scams. The government sent 200,000 messages to citizens asking for solutions. The responses led to a citizen assembly that proposed real-world policy changes. Not long after, legislation was amended to include digital signatures, platform accountability, and anti-scam enforcement. The result: a near-eradication of deepfake scam ads by year’s end.

To break the grip of tech giants and in order to reduce digital dependency, Audrey praised Utah’s new Digital Choice Act, which will soon allow social media users to share their content and followers across different platforms. This “social portability” empowers users and shifts competition away from addictive engagement toward citizen well-being.

In her closing remarks, Audrey returned to her 2016 job description as Taiwan’s Digital Minister: to transform the “Internet of Things” into an “Internet of Beings,” virtual reality into shared reality, and machine learning into collaborative learning. It is a mission not just to modernize democracy, but to future-proof it—by building a sound civic infrastructure strong enough to weaken autocracies and render them obsolete.