"We Want to Deepen Our Understanding of How Information Influence Works"

The digital and completely free event, titled "Disinformation, Propaganda, and Lies – How False Narratives Spread Online," will be held on March 13th. This highly relevant societal challenge aligns with the work of Media & Democracy projects like "Strengthened Local Journalism in Crisis Situations" and "Strengthened Democratic Participation and Practice," which explore methods to increase the resilience of key democratic groups.

During the event, Linda Corsvall, Communications Director at the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), will share experiences and lessons learned from the extensive disinformation campaign targeting Sweden's social services. Her presentation will be followed by a talk on the image of Sweden abroad, how information is used in warfare, and how Russia's information influence in Sweden compares to other parts of the EU.

The event will be moderated by Björn Appelgren from the Swedish Internet Foundation.

The event will conclude with Jack Werner from Källkritikbyrån, who will offer reflections from an individual perspective on how internet users can navigate the digital information landscape.

The event targets a broad audience, from individual internet users to teachers, librarians, public administration employees, policymakers, and communicators. Interest is significant, and as of this writing, the event already has well over 4,500 registered participants.

What do you hope participants will take away from the event?

"Above all, a deeper understanding of how complex this is. What disinformation is, how it works, and how it spreads. To give an example: someone burned a Quran in Sweden; that happened, but then the real event was used for other purposes by being spread with various changes to the narrative. It's difficult to navigate the information landscape today, but even if it's difficult, we must delve into it so people know how it works. In the long run, we want more conscious and knowledgeable internet users."

Has the turbulent global situation impacted the need for knowledge about disinformation?

"Yes, I believe so. We've been affected by several information campaigns and are facing an EU election and 'super election years' around the world. We know that Russian influence attempts have been made in previous EU elections and the US presidential election. As recently as last week, Säpo (the Swedish Security Service) released a status report further emphasizing that the threat from foreign powers remains serious. We want to provide a deeper understanding of how information influence works and how it affects operations and Sweden's image."

Education, knowledge, and reputable news providers are key to equipping ourselves against disinformation. But it's essential to stay updated on the subject. For instance, people used to talk a lot about source criticism—finding out who wrote something and why. Now, the discourse is much more about being able to distinguish truth from falsehood, according to Björn Appelgren.

"What happens when the information flow is this complex is that trust in all forms of information risks decreasing. That's where source trustworthiness comes in, which is more about assessing the credibility of sources at a systemic level. What is journalism? How is scientific knowledge produced? Why is information from certain types of sources more reasonable to trust? There's a nuanced difference there between source criticism, content criticism, and source trustworthiness. Furthermore, we tend to have more personalized and diverse information flows today, so we also lack a common understanding of what's happening in the world."