TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A new poll found a correlation between Taiwanese people's use of TikTok and the higher acceptance of dubious narratives that favor Chinese Communist Party (CCP) talking points.

A poll published by the Taiwan Information Environment Research Center (IORG) on Dec. 11 found that adult TikTok users in Taiwan are not exclusively people in their 20s. It also discovered that TikTok users in Taiwan are more likely to believe in dubious narratives that are circulating in traditional and social media in Taiwan.

According to the survey, 18.2% of Taiwanese use TikTok, with an average usage of 4.4 days per week. It said 56% of users fall into the 20-29 and 40-49 age groups, at 28.6% and 27.4%, respectively.

The next largest group was people aged 30-39 at 16.8%, followed by citizens 50-59 at 15.2%, with individuals aged 60 and over comprising the smallest percentage at 11%.

The poll found TikTok users were more likely to agree with dubious narratives than non-TikTok users. The four dubious narratives include: "TSMC's setting up of a factory in the U.S. is the U.S. hollowing out Taiwan," "the government's import of American pork and Japanese Fukushima food products are acts of betraying Taiwan at the expense of public health," "the government's pro-American stance is provoking China and will lead to a cross-strait war," and "for Taiwan's economy to prosper, it must sign various trade agreements with China."

Among TikTok users, 38.7% believed the building of the TSMC fab in Arizona was an act of exploitation by the U.S., while 32.4% of non-TikTok users thought this was the case. When it came to the import of U.S. pork and food products from Fukushima, 59% of TikTok users considered these to be detrimental actions, while 44.4% of non-TikTok users had this opinion.

Asked whether the Taiwan government's pro-U.S. stance is provoking China, 51.8% of TikTok users believed this to be the case, while only 38% of non-TikTok users had such a view. Lastly, 46.4% of TikTok users thought Taiwan must sign trade agreements with China to prosper, while 31.4% of non-TikTok users held this belief.

The survey was conducted from Oct. 2-21 by the Public Opinion and Market Research in the Center Department and Graduate Institute of Political Science at National Chung Cheng University. The poll gathered 1,129 valid responses with a sampling error of plus or minus 2.92 percentage points with a confidence level of 95%.