Plurality in Lithuania

In Lithuania, no translation of the book *Plurality* and no reporting on E. Glen Weyl has been found. What stands out are the opening of a Taiwanese representative office in 2021 and China's backlash, Audrey Tang's visit in 2023, and the "elfai" (elves), citizens who stand up to disinformation.

When false news spreads online, whose job is it to counter it? The state's, the news media's, or each individual citizen's? In Lithuania, one of the three Baltic states, volunteer citizens known as elfai (elves) have taken on disinformation. Audrey Tang of Taiwan chose this country as the first foreign destination after becoming minister for digital affairs. No trace has been found, however, of Plurality, the book by Tang and E. Glen Weyl, itself being discussed in Lithuania.

In short

The research for this article found no Lithuanian translation of Plurality. Google News (in Lithuanian) also returned 0 reports featuring Weyl (a provisional count by this site, October 2026) [1].

Three events stand out in Lithuanian sources. In 2021, a representative office bearing the name "Taiwan" (Taivaniečių atstovybė) opened, and China reacted strongly [2]. In January 2023, Tang visited Lithuania [9]. And there are the "elfai" (elves), citizen volunteers who counter disinformation [16].

For example

The Taiwanese representative office (2021). On August 10, 2021, China recalled its ambassador to Lithuania, citing consultations. According to the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs' announcement, China proposed that Lithuania also recall its ambassador in Beijing (the article's headline and the Chinese embassy's statement say "demanded"). The statement by the Chinese embassy in Lithuania said that the decision to allow an office to open under the name "Taivanas" (Taiwan) "labai kenkia" (seriously damages) China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Lithuania's foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said "Apgailestaujame dėl tokio Kinijos sprendimo" (we regret this decision by China) [2].

The office began work on November 18 [3]. On November 21, China lowered diplomatic relations between the two countries to the level of a chargé d'affaires rather than an ambassador. The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs restated that it keeps to the "One China" policy, and explained that hosting the office is "grįstas ekonominiais interesais" (based on economic interests) [4].

Tang's visit (January 2023). For Tang, Lithuania was the first foreign trip as minister of digital affairs. Tang told Lithuania's BNS: "Undoubtedly, Lithuania, value-wise, is the closest to Taiwan in the world." [9]

During the visit, Tang became a Lithuanian e-resident (a status that lets people abroad use electronic government services) at the Migration Department in Vilnius. Aušrinė Armonaitė, the Minister of the Economy and Innovation, said that Tang was not the first e-resident, but was the first minister to become one. According to the head of the Migration Department, there are more than 300 e-residents worldwide [8].

The "elfai" (elves). Demaskuok.lt, announced in 2018, is an initiative in which news media, citizens and the state join forces against disinformation. It recruited volunteer experts from many fields, called "elfai". At the time of the announcement, more than 30 elfai had joined, and the initiative was to work with the army's Strategic Communication Department (STRATCOM) and others [16].

In 2019, Auksė Ūsienė, an analyst in that army department, laughed off a rumor that the army had created a unit of elfai. Ūsienė said that any Lithuanian citizen who notices disinformation being spread against their country or themselves can become an elfas, and that no elfai are paid by the state [17].

In more detail

Background to relations with Taiwan

According to Lithuanian Wikipedia, after restoring its independence in 1990 Lithuania recognized only the People's Republic of China. This differs from neighboring Latvia, which in 1992–93 recognized both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) [5].

The same article lists three triggers for the closer relationship with Taiwan: worsening relations with China, a new government friendly to Taiwan, and the decision to donate 20,000 vaccine doses to Taiwan. Lithuania became the third country, after Japan and the United States, to donate vaccines to Taiwan [5]. Until the office opened, Taiwan's representative in Riga also handled Lithuanian affairs [5].

According to 15min, the office's first representative, Eric Huang, also served as head of the Taipei mission in Latvia. Taiwanese offices in other countries call themselves "Taipei", after the capital, because of an international understanding that this does not conflict with the "One China" policy [3]. → Plurality in Latvia

The domestic debate over the name (2026)

In 2026, Inga Ruginienė, then prime minister, said in an interview that opening the office had brought "nulį naudos" (zero benefit) from Taiwan and a large loss in relations with China. In a poll by the research company Baltijos tyrimai commissioned by LRT, six in ten people supported changing the office's name [6].

In response, President Gitanas Nausėda said that a debate about renaming is possible, but that it should be understood that the answer could be no [7]. In September, Remigijus Motuzas, chair of the foreign affairs committee of parliament (the Seimas), said that Lithuania is not currently considering a renaming and that, in Motuzas's view, Taiwan itself should decide first [7].

Lithuania as Tang describes it

Tang described the defense of the Vilnius TV Tower, 10 months after Lithuania's declaration of independence, as "nonviolent resistance coupled with communication technology". Satellite footage carried the images into living rooms around the world, and the world supported the resistance. Tang said this resonates with Taiwan's own experience of building communication resilience [11].

Tang told Reuters that Taiwan, like Lithuania, chose to overcome anti-democratic trends "through more democracy, through more press freedom, through more inclusivity" [10].

To BNS, Tang described the content of concrete cooperation. Under a letter of intent signed by Lithuania's Innovation Agency and the Taiwanese body Democracy Network, Taiwan, the two would work on having teachers and school children take part in fact-finding and contextualization. Tang also said that the code of Taiwan's civil-society fact-checking (checking whether information is true) is open source and is already used in Thailand [9].

Asked what form cybersecurity cooperation would take, Tang answered "people-public-private partnership" (a partnership of people, the public sector and the private sector). The explanation was that Taiwan and Lithuania share the belief that the power of surveillance and censorship should not be concentrated in the state but decentralized into civil society [9].

According to 15min, Tang told a press conference about having served, before becoming minister, on the committee for Taiwan's basic education curriculum. There, the decision was made to replace digital literacy and media literacy with competency (kompetencija, the ability to build the world together) (a statement reported through a Lithuanian translation) [12].

e-residency and multiple identities

In later conversations, Tang several times gave being a Lithuanian e-resident as an example of one person holding multiple identities. In June 2023, Tang called counting the Lithuanian e-resident Audrey and the Taiwanese citizen Audrey as one vote "the minimally viable examples" [13].

In October, Tang said that holding IDs from Palau, Lithuania and Taiwan, it "may be possible" to pretend to be three people for now, since there is currently no deduplication [14]. → Identity and personhood

What is debated

The office is a political issue. The Chinese government saw it as damaging its sovereignty and lowered the diplomatic level. The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that it was based on economic interests [2][4]. In 2026, the then prime minister criticized the opening, and the president and the chair of parliament's foreign affairs committee each took different positions [6][7]. All of these were reported as the claims of the respective speakers.
The elfai are not an army unit. An army analyst has denied the rumor that they are a unit created by the army [17].
Thin sources. No Lithuanian-language material discussing the book or Weyl was found among the forks, in GitHub searches or on Google News. Reporting by the news site Delfi.lt was not retrieved, and the national library catalog was not checked [1].

Where it fits in Plurality

The book hardly mentions Lithuania. About the only place is chapter 6-5 "Learning" in the English edition, which cites the 2022 reports of the international assessments PISA and ICCS and names Lithuania, together with Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, among the countries that "grew against the trend during the pandemic" [18].

What the Lithuanian sources talk about is not the book's theory but contacts with Taiwan and, within them, measures against disinformation. Tang's remarks connect to Taiwan's digital democracy and, through e-residency, to identity and personhood. Among the sources gathered for this article, however, none linked the elfai or Demaskuok.lt to Plurality or Community Notes.

At a 2022 meeting with Tang, Jakub Janda of EVC, a Prague think tank, spoke of the diplomatic openings that have emerged between Central European political leaders and Taiwan, calling Lithuania "the bravest one to start it" [15]. → Plurality in Czechia

Articles on other countries and regions:

Sources

List of forks of pluralitybook/plurality, and queries on GitHub and Google News (in Lithuanian) (2026-10-02) — https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality/forks ［CC0］
LRT, "Kinija atšaukia ambasadorių Lietuvoje, reikalauja Vilniaus atšaukti pasiuntinį iš Pekino" (2021-08-10) — https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/pasaulyje/6/1466052/kinija-atsaukia-ambasadoriu-lietuvoje-reikalauja-vilniaus-atsaukti-pasiuntini-is-pekino
15min, "Taivaniečių atstovybė Lietuvoje pradeda darbą" (2021-11-18) — https://www.15min.lt/naujiena/aktualu/lietuva/taivanieciu-atstovybe-lietuvoje-pradeda-darba-56-1599582
LRT, "Kilus ginčams dėl Taivano, Kinija apribojo diplomatinį atstovavimą su Lietuva" (2021-11-21) — https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/lietuvoje/2/1547061/kilus-gincams-del-taivano-kinija-apribojo-diplomatini-atstovavima-su-lietuva
Lithuanian Wikipedia, "Lietuvos ir Taivano santykiai" — https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lietuvos_ir_Taivano_santykiai ［CC BY-SA 4.0］
15min, "Premjerė: Taivaniečių atstovybės atidarymas atnešė nulį naudos iš Taipėjaus ir minusą iš Kinijos" (2026-03-23) — https://www.15min.lt/naujiena/aktualu/lietuva/premjere-taivanieciu-atstovybes-atidarymas-atnese-nuli-naudos-is-taipejaus-ir-minusa-is-kinijos-56-2647000
LRT, "Motuzas: Lietuva šiuo metu nesvarsto keisti Taivaniečių atstovybės pavadinimo" (2026-09-07, ELTA) — https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/lietuvoje/2/3045125/motuzas-lietuva-siuo-metu-nesvarsto-keisti-taivanieciu-atstovybes-pavadinimo
LRT, "Taivano skaitmeninių reikalų ministrė tapo Lietuvos e. rezidente: visame pasaulyje tokių asmenų jau virš 300" (2023-01-12, ELTA) — https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/verslas/4/1865073/taivano-skaitmeniniu-reikalu-ministre-tapo-lietuvos-e-rezidente-visame-pasaulyje-tokiu-asmenu-jau-virs-300
2023-01-13 Interview with BNS (transcript) — https://github.com/audreyt/transcript/blob/main/2023-01-13-Interview-with-BNS.md ［CC0］
2023-01-13 Interview with Reuters (transcript) — https://github.com/audreyt/transcript/blob/main/2023-01-13-Interview-with-Reuters.md ［CC0］
2023-01-18 Interview with TaiwanPlus (transcript) — https://github.com/audreyt/transcript/blob/main/2023-01-18-Interview-with-TaiwanPlus.md ［CC0］
15min, "Taivanas planuoja investuoti į Lietuvos vaikų skaitmeninį raštingumą" (2023-01-11) — https://www.15min.lt/verslas/naujiena/finansai/taivanas-planuoja-investuoti-i-lietuvos-vaiku-skaitmenini-rastinguma-662-1992762
Conversation with Ethereum Foundation (2023-06-07, transcript) — https://archive.tw/2023-06-07-conversation-with-ethereum-foundation ［CC0］
2023-10-18 Conversation with Yasmin Green and Örkesh Dölet (transcript) — https://github.com/audreyt/transcript/blob/main/2023-10-18-Conversation-with-Yasmin-Green-and-%C3%96rkesh-D%C3%B6let.md ［CC0］
2022-01-04 Meeting with EVC (transcript) — https://github.com/audreyt/transcript/blob/main/2022-01-04-Meeting-with-EVC.md ［CC0］
LRT, "Vienijasi kovai su dezinformacija: pristatyta iniciatyva „Demaskuok.lt“" (2018-09-13) — https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/lietuvoje/2/226671/vienijasi-kovai-su-dezinformacija-pristatyta-iniciatyva-demaskuok-lt
LRT, "Lietuvos „elfai“ – mitinės būtybės, apie kurias visi girdėjo, bet niekas nematė" (2019-12-25) — https://www.lrt.lt/naujienos/lietuvoje/2/1122562/lietuvos-elfai-mitines-butybes-apie-kurias-visi-girdejo-bet-niekas-nemate
Plurality, 6-5 "Learning" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/6-5/eng/ ［CC0］

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