Swedish PM ‘serious’ about far-right troll farm accusations

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, pressed by the opposition and members of his own coalition, claimed on Wednesday to be taking very seriously accusations of a “troll farm”, allegedly run by the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) on whom his majority depends, despite the party denying any illegal activity.

Kristersson of the Moderate Party (MP) has taken seriously the information from TV4 that the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) party is running a so-called “troll factory”.

“These are serious accusations, and I take the whole situation seriously,” he told TV4 Nyheterna.

“Especially when people and parties risk contributing to misinformation of various kinds. This applies regardless of who is behind it,” Kristersson said, adding that “All parties must stay away from that.”

On TV4’s “Kalla Fakta” programme, which aired earlier this week, SD politician Julian Kroon admitted that the party had hired around 10 people to act as “online warriors” ahead of the 2018 general election. Their job, among other things, was to be visible on social media and “fight in comment sections”.

“You could call it a troll factory,” Kroon told Kalla Fakta’s undercover reporter.

All in all, the programme revealed that the SD’s communications department uses many anonymous accounts to spread social media content favourable to the far-right party.

Political nightmare for the ruling coalition

The Swedish prime minister was otherwise 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 it is the kind of case that can easily damage or even undo a coalition, given the importance of the far-right party in the Swedish political landscape.

SD, the country’s second largest party, is not formally part of the ruling coalition – made up of the centre-right Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals – but supports it in return for a stricter immigration policy.

The Liberals have traditionally been the party that finds it hardest to work 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 cooperation with the Sweden Democrats.

“If the government cares as much about security policy as they say they do, they need to stop disinformation, regardless of whether it is Russian, Chinese or, for that matter, domestic,” he said.

On the other side of the aisle, Social Democrat Party Secretary Tobias Baudin (SD) called the troll factories a “serious attack on democracy”.

“These are troll factories financed by taxpayers whose purpose is to intimidate and threaten and ultimately influence how the Swedish people vote. This is also a threat to democracy”, he said, demanding that the Prime Minister answer whether the so-called troll factories are influencing the EU election campaign and thus the election result, and if so, that he take action.

Centre Party leader Muharrem Demirok described the far-right party’s behaviour as a systemic threat and announced that the party would file a request to investigate the party’s finances, which he said were “at the seams”.

‘Nothing to hide’

Given the widespread criticism, even within his own camp, the prime minister said 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 about political parties trying to get their message across in different ways.

“As I remember it, it was about ten people from the youth association who were active on the internet during working hours under their own names, so there is nothing secret behind it in any way,” Åkesson said of the 10 so-called “net warriors”.

“The concept of trolls and trolling and troll factories is based on deliberately and systematically spreading disinformation. Nothing of the sort appears in this report,” he said.

Accusations of troll factories and covert opinion-shaping on social media have been levelled at SD for years, particularly following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 US presidential election, when social media came under intense media scrutiny in Sweden.

Reports of Russian influence on the US election, using troll factories in St Petersburg, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal showed how international social media platforms could potentially be used to influence the democratic process.

(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)

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