By EU vs Disinfo Denmark and Sweden will cooperate in the field of hybrid threats, and there will be a strong focus on the problem with fake news and disinformation. This was the message in an op-ed published on Wednesday by the two countries’ defence ministers in the Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet under the headline “Russian fake news: a danger to our countries”. “The security situation in our region is deteriorating…
Swedish kids are set to learn programming from their first year of primary school, as the country’s government introduces an improved digital competence aspect to the curriculum designed to make the tech savvy Swedes even better with computers. Sweden has a reputation for being a leading nation in the tech industry, but rather than resting on its laurels, the plan is for kids to be exposed to the nuts and…
By EU vs Disinformation Last week, we described how trolling and personal intimidation towards journalists and commentators is the most prominent form of propaganda in the Nordic countries. The conclusion was confirmed in a story published last Thursday by the Swedish daily Eskilstuna Kuriren. For the first time, Swedish readers could go behind the scenes and learn about how work is done at a Swedish troll factory. – Hi, I’m…
A case of double bluff – this was the conclusion Swedish internet users reached after a Swedish website presenting itself as the next in a series of websites devoted to checking facts and challenging disinformation turned out to be doing the contrary of what it claimed – not checking but reinforcing disinformation. As we have reported, awareness of the disinformation problem is growing both globally, via e.g. the First Draft…
Swedish Institute of International Affairs accuses Russia of using fake news and false documents to influence opinion, Jon Henley wrote for The Guardian. Sweden’s most authoritative foreign policy institute has accused Russia of using fake news, false documents and disinformation as part of a coordinated campaign to influence public opinion and decision-making in the Scandinavian country. The Swedish Institute of International Affairs said in a comprehensive study that Sweden had…
By The Local Sweden’s most respected foreign policy institute has accused Russia of using underhand methods, including fake news, counterfeit documents, and other disinformation, to influence Swedish decision-making. The report by Martin Kragh, a Russia expert at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, is the first empirical study detailing Russia’s use of ‘active measures’ in its information war against Sweden, which is largely directed at steering the country away from…
Earlier this month the Spanish version of Russia’s international news company RT announced that Sweden, the most attractive country in the world wants out of the EU. RT claims that in a recent poll a majority of Swedes expressed a desire to leave the European Union, however RT fails to mention when the poll was conducted, who organized it and how many people actually participated. In the same story however,…
A series of coordinated cyber attacks knocked Sweden’s main newspapers offline for several hours over the weekend, with early reports suggesting the attacks originated from Russia. An anonymous threat was posted to Twitter several hours before the attacks, stating: “The following days attacks against the Swedish government and media spreading false propaganda will be targetted [sic].” The online editions of at least seven newspapers were compromised as a result of…
Sweden is considering joining a Nato centre for strategic communication to boost its expertise in fighting propaganda wars in the social media world, said its defence minister on Monday. Sweden’s Nordic neighbour Finland is already a member of StratCom, Nato’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, which has researched cyber warfare since 2014. Based in Latvia, its main focus has been on Russia, which has been accused of carrying out social…
A recent photo fake about a Donbas boy, presented as an orphan searching for his parents among the debris of a destroyed Ukrainian town, has now hit Swedish social networks, but with a new twist. StopFake has already reported about how this photo was manipulated by Russian media to stir anger at alleged Ukrainian army atrocities. The context of the photo has once again been altered, this time against Muslims migrating to…
