A Taipei city councilor has been charged with faking a party document to smear the ruling DPP during Taiwan's last presidential race — bad news for him, and a warning shot for Taiwan's disinformation-heavy politics.

• New Party councilor Hou Han-ting held a press conference during the January 2024 campaign showing what he called a secret DPP policy memo ordering government agencies and friendly media to help the party win.
• Prosecutors in Taipei say the document was forged — it was full of typos and simplified Chinese characters, and the DPP body it named never existed.
• He has been charged under Taiwan's presidential election law and with forgery, with prosecutors arguing he skipped basic fact-checking on purpose to land the story before voting day.
• His own sourcing collapsed: the ex-lawmaker who gave him the file thought it was fake, and messages show he only asked another contact to verify it after going public.
• Hou says he will plead not guilty and calls the indictment a badge of honor for exposing government wrongdoing.

Outlook: The case now goes to trial, keeping a fight over election-season disinformation in Taiwan's headlines.