The battle over online buzz in the Taipei mayoral race has begun early, and the controversy has largely worked in favour of Democratic Progressive Party candidate Shen Po-yang, since he turned the questioning into exposure.

• Some internet users noticed that Shen Po-yang's follower count on Threads is far higher than that of incumbent mayor Chiang Wan-an, and questioned whether the DPP had paid for an online troll army.
• Shen Po-yang responded personally, saying his high follower count is because he started building his social media presence very early on.
• He also changed his comment settings so that users must follow him before they can comment, which means quite a few of his followers are actually there to attack him.
• He said buying a troll army is not worth it, because platforms can detect it and opponents can dig it up; there are even people in the industry who buy fake accounts to flood a rival's fan page and then turn around and leak the story.

Outlook: The attacks and counterattacks in the Taipei mayoral race will focus more heavily on online buzz and fake accounts, with both sides' social media figures coming under continued scrutiny.