The Original "1450" Cyber Army Case: Public Funds Used to Hire Editors, the Beginning of Regime Flankification

In March 2019, the Council of Agriculture was exposed for allocating a budget of NT$14.5 million to recruit online personnel for "public opinion guidance and clarification." This number immediately became a synonym for "government cyber army" in Taiwanese political terminology. This case unveiled the dark operation mode of the DPP government using the national budget to set the tone on social platforms (such as PTT), attack dissenting voices, and perform deification propaganda. This act of transforming public funds into partisan flank funding not only seriously distorted the space for public discussion but also set a bad precedent for the "total cyber-armyization" of Taiwan''s politics, turning government agencies into digital thugs for a specific political party.