China, Russia and far-right internet trolls threaten to destroy the democratic debate – Dagsavisen

It does not need to look long to see dark clouds during the day. We don’t need to list the whole list every time, but war, climate, the advance of the far right, expensive times and general misery can be some keywords.

But it’s never so bad that it can’t get any worse. Therefore, unfortunately, we have to dwell a bit on the trolls, or internet warriors, if you like. The forces that work actively to destabilize, troll and destroy our attempt to have something resembling a civilized and enlightened conversation.

The declining trust in the media makes our societies even more vulnerable to influence from actors who do not wish us well.

This week, two thorough journalistic works have shown how serious the threat is. To begin with the one closest to ourselves:

Swedish TV4 has visited the troll factory of the Sweden Democrats (SD). The far-right party has long denied that it maintains anonymous accounts on social media that contribute to littering the Swedish debate. The TV4 program “Kalla Fakta” sent in a journalist who took a job at SD, and who, by using a hidden camera, can show that SD does indeed actively influence public opinion through the use of such anonymous online accounts.

Ahead of the Swedish elections, SD’s online warriors enter social media and “owns the forum”, i.e. “owner” and sets the terms for the debate, says an internal source in the documentary. “Kalla fakta” identifies three people internally in the SD communications department who operate such anonymous accounts on behalf of the party.

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TV4’s journalist can also reveal that there are close ties between the allegedly independent YouTube channel Riks, which has given SD great influence online, and the party. The channel’s employees and SD’s communications department sit in the same room, have access to the same material and can contribute a bit here and a bit there. This is how SD can make it appear as if a cause has far greater support than it does, or the opposite: that the popular rage and resistance is far greater than it actually is.

The reasons for SD’s growth – the party enjoys around 25 per cent support – are many and complex. This manipulation of the Swedish public is probably far down the list of what drives the party forward, but it has contributed.

In the same way that it has contributed to a gradual loss of trust in the institutions and – not least – the traditional media, which “do not dare to address the real problems in society”, according to many SD voters and frequent users of so-called alternative media, who typically have a loose relationship with the truth, an extremely bad relationship with immigrants and do not relate to an editorial poster.

In a long essay in The Atlantic magazine, the American journalist and author Anne Applebaum writes about how the world’s autocrats, primarily the Chinese and Russian leaders, operate in much the same way – only on a global scale.

Applebaum shows how false stories about Ukraine spread from coordinated campaigns in China or Russia via far-right sources in the US and “US-critical” media in Latin America, Africa and Asia and thus end up muddying the waters and undermining support to Ukraine’s defense against Russia. She specifically refers to the claim that the US controlled 26 biolaboratories in Ukraine, a falsity that entered the narrative that the war in Ukraine actually is the fault and responsibility of the US and NATO.

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This is how many in the global south have ended up in league with autocrats and the far right in Europe and the USA, and blame the West and the corrupt Ukrainian Nazis for Vladimir Putin’s war, writes Applebaum. It is of course possible to object that the reasons for the skepticism towards Western storytelling probably have longer historical and political roots than that, but the point still stands: Democracies are in danger of losing the information battle about reality, and thus also the way forward.

Globally – and in our neighboring country Sweden.

So far, we have been spared powerful parties with troll factories in this country, although there are certainly anonymous accounts, false prophets, cynical backers and false and divisive information here too. A sign of the times is perhaps that only 24 percent of Norwegians have a lot of trust in the Norwegian media, according to the Media Survey which was presented last week. It is an ugly drop from the 37 percent who had great confidence just a year ago. And the numbers in the US are far, far more discouraging.

Not all of this has to do with Chinese dragons, Russian bears and national trolls, of course. We who work in the media must assess whether we are doing our job in the right way when trust is falling. We may not cover wind power opposition, the electricity price debate or the relationship with Brussels in a way that is in line with people’s perception of reality, to name three issues that can make the population’s blood boil.

Whatever the reason: The declining trust – and support – for the media makes our societies even more vulnerable to influence from actors who do not want us well. There are many signs that indicate that we must brace ourselves and prepare for murky election campaigns in the future, also here at home.

Read more comments by Jo Moen Bredeveien

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