Sweden flooded with fake news from far-right sites before election

Sweden is facing a widespread disinformation campaign ahead of its general election this weekend according to a new study, with a third of articles shared online coming from deliberately misleading sources.

The study, conducted by researchers at Oxford University and first reported by Reuters, analyzed 275,000 tweets during a ten-day period in August. It found that a third of shared articles came from “junk” websites that deliberately shared misleading information, most of them with a rightward tilt. Three of the most popular “junk sites” employed former members of the Sweden Democrats, a far-right party currently riding high in the polls.

A significant portion of the fake news focused on stories about Islam and immigration. For example in June, the popular fake news website Samhallsnytt (which had previously received financial support from the Sweden Democrats) published a fake story about how a youth soccer tournament had banned pork as “haram.”

Despite the economy doing well, many Swedes are deeply pessimistic about the current state of the country, with fears about surging crime and immigration dominating the election narrative. Professor Per Ödling of the University of Lund however, maintains that social media has played a pivotal role in creating a more pessimistic populace. He told Nordic Business Insider that this pessimism is partly fueled by social media algorithms, which will show you more pessimistic and panic-inducing fake news if you show interest in one “junk” source.

https://thinkprogress.org/sweden-swamped-with-fake-news-ahead-of-election-c91c73869f3b/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=5b92687b9ebbef000133e2df&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook