Tik-Toking Power Shortage Anxiety: The Effect of Chinese Social Media Use on Taiwanese Energy Preferences

• In Event: Environmental Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 14: Energy, Communication, and Public Opinion

Abstract

Efforts to address the climate crisis and advance energy transition have increasingly encountered misinformation and disinformation attacks in recent decades. Such campaigns have coalesced into national and transnational “climate change denial machines” that pose significant challenges to sustainable energy transition. Prior studies have largely attributed these disinformation efforts to the socio-economic structures of modern capitalism and the vested interests of conventional energy industries, particularly those linked to fossil fuels and nuclear power. However, amid intensifying geopolitical tensions in recent years, disinformation campaigns have also been deployed as strategic instruments by foreign actors to undermine rival countries’ energy policies, thereby obstructing environmental sustainability and decarbonization efforts.
To examine the impacts of geopolitically driven disinformation on energy transition, this study focuses on Taiwan, a country that is among the most frequent targets of foreign information operations. In the context of the dual challenges of climate change mitigation and energy security, Taiwan’s energy transition has increasingly been shaped by social media discourse and cross-border information flows. In particular, Chinese social media platforms such as TikTok, Weibo, and WeChat have become important channels for the dissemination of misleading information about renewable energy technologies, often recirculated through local online communities to amplify narratives of impending power shortages.
Drawing on a nationwide survey conducted in 2024, this study investigates how the use of Chinese social media relates to power-shortage anxiety and public attitudes toward different energy sources. Results from multiple regression and structural equation modeling indicate that although the use of Chinese social media does not exert a direct effect on support for either renewable energy or nuclear power, it significantly increases power-shortage anxiety. This heightened anxiety, in turn, is associated with reduced support for renewable energy and increased support for nuclear power. Overall, the findings reveal a cognitive pathway through which authoritarian state-controlled social media platforms may indirectly shape public energy preferences in targeted democracies.

Authors

• Yun-Chung Ting, Academia Sinica

• Thung-Hong Lin, Academia Sinica