Ted Audio Collective

Hello, I'm Chris Anderson, welcome to the Ted Interview.

A really surprising interview today.

Many of us have spent the last few years bimmoning the state of social media and its propensity

to cause division and outrage.

But what if you could use it to do something really good, like really good, for example, tackling the coronavirus pandemic?

Today's guest Audrey Tong has been working on exactly that.

Audrey is a self-described conservative anarchist.

In 2014 she was a software programmer dedicated to protesting the Taiwanese government as part of the sunflower movement.

But by 2016 she had become the country's first digital minister in charge of social innovation.

Her work has had powerful impact.

As the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe early this year, Taiwan managed to bring infections within its borders to an impressively quick end.

Today Audrey explains how social media played a crucial role in that effort.

I mean imagine that instead of spreading poison, social media can actually be harnessed to create a form of crowd wisdom to combat the harm for misinformation that spreads online,

and to hold both governments and private companies accountable to the public good.

This interview was recorded live at the Ted 2020 conference, which is happening virtually throughout June and early July.

The conversation is hosted by Ted's science curator David Bielo and current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rogers.

Here's David.

Thank you.

Please give a warm Ted welcome to the conservative anarchist Audrey Tong.

Very happy to be joining you and good local time, everyone.

So tell us about digital tools and COVID.

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