Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, pressed by the opposition and members of his own coalition, said on Wednesday that he takes very seriously the allegations of a “troll farm”, allegedly run by the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) party by on which its majority depends, although the party denies any involvement.
Kristersson, from the Moderate Party (MP), took seriously reports from TV4 that the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) was running a so-called “troll factory”.
“These are serious allegations and I take the entire situation seriously,” he told TV4 Nyheterna.
“Especially when people and parties risk contributing to disinformation of various types. This applies regardless of who is behind it,” Kristersson said, adding that “all parties must stay away from it.”
On TV4’s “Kalla Fakta” program, which aired earlier this week, SD politician Julian Kroon admitted that the party has hired around 10 people to act as “online warriors” ahead of the 2018 general elections. their job, among other things, was to be visible on social media and “fight in the comments sections.”
“You could call it a troll factory,” Kroon told Kalla Fakta’s undercover reporter.
Overall, the program revealed that the SD’s communication department uses many anonymous accounts to spread content favorable to the far-right party on social media.
Political nightmare for the government coalition
The Swedish prime minister, however, was reticent, refusing to comment further on the matter during the interview.
“The less he says, the better for him and his party,” a source close to the Swedish liberals told Euractiv, adding that this is a case that can easily damage or even destroy a coalition, given the importance of the party of far right in the Swedish political landscape.
SD, the country’s second largest party, is not formally part of the government coalition – made up of centre-right moderates, Christian Democrats and liberals – but supports it in exchange for a stricter immigration policy.
The Liberals are traditionally the party that has the most difficulty working with the far right and the news has reopened the rift between them. Erik Berg, leader of the Liberal Youth League, even said on Tuesday that he wanted the Liberals to end their collaboration with the Sweden Democrats.
“If the government cares about security policy as it says it does, it must stop disinformation, regardless of whether it is Russian, Chinese or, for that matter, domestic.”
On the other side of the fence, Social Democratic Party secretary Tobias Baudin (SD) called the troll factories a “serious attack on democracy.”
“These are taxpayer-funded troll factories whose aim is to intimidate and threaten and ultimately influence the vote of Swedes. This is also a threat to democracy,” he said, calling on the Prime Minister to answer whether the so-called troll factories are influencing the EU election campaign and therefore the outcome of the elections and, if so, to take action.
Center Party leader Muharrem Demirok described the far-right party’s behavior as a systemic threat and announced that the party would submit a request for an investigation into the party’s finances, which he said were “collapsing.”
Nothing to hide
Given the widespread criticism, even within his own party, the prime minister said that it was up to the far-right party to explain the affair, which did not involve the coalition.
SD party leader Jimmie Åkesson sees nothing controversial in the fact that political parties try to convey their message in different ways.
“If I remember correctly, it was about ten people from the youth association who were active on the Internet under their own names during working hours, so there is nothing secret behind it,” Åkesson said about the 10 so-called “network warriors”.
“The concept of trolls, trolling and troll factories is based on the deliberate and systematic spread of misinformation. Nothing of the sort appears in this report,” she added.
Accusations of troll factories and covert shaping of public opinion on social media have been leveled at the SD for years, particularly after Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 US presidential election, when social media was the subject of intense scrutiny by the Swedish media.
News of Russian influence on US elections, using troll factories in St. Petersburg, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal have shown how international social media platforms can potentially be used to influence the democratic process.
(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)
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