If a social media account is spreading Russian disinformation - does sharing content from the account give it legitimacy?
No, says Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Minister for Civil Defence. But at the authority the minister is responsible for, the answer sounds different.
— In any case, you spread something that a foreign power might intend to spread to make us worried, says Mikael Östlund, press officer at the authority.
It was a year ago that Carl-Oskar Bohlin shared a tweet from the American influencer Lauren Southern, known for her far-right advocacy. The original video warned of how AI is used in influence operations, something the minister forwarded to his around 45,000 followers. “The ability and height of the impact operations risk increasing avalanche-like with disruptive technology shifts,” wrote Carl-Oskar Bohlin on X.
Now, an American indictment against two Russian government employees shows that the production company Tenet media, where Lauren Southern is employed, must have been secretly financed by the Russian news agency RT. A total of just over SEK 100 million is said to have been transferred from the Russian state employees to the American company. In turn, influencers would push specific issues—such as questioning support for Ukraine—to their millions of followers. On YouTube alone, the videos have received more than 16 million views.
In light of the American indictment, Carl-Oskar Bohlin has been criticized for not checking his sources better. But the Minister of Civil Defense lets the tweet stay on X.
“For the simple reason that it is difficult to misunderstand.” writes Bohlin to DN.
“One should of course refrain from spreading harmful narratives from foreign powers. However, it is a somewhat strange indictment that my warning about deepfakes and doctored videos would in itself constitute Russian disinformation. With such a threshold, it will be difficult to talk about or warn about the phenomenon at all,” continues the minister.
Carl-Oskar Bohlin is responsible for the agency for psychological defence, MPF. Countering misdirection and misinformation, including rumor spreading and propaganda, is one of the agency’s main missions.
In case you wonder, mr. Bohlin is from the conservative party (Moderaterna).
Full translation (courtesy Bing):
SWEDISH POLITICS: The Minister of Civil Defense does not take down tweets whose content may have been funded by Russia
If a social media account spreads Russian disinformation – does it give it legitimacy by sharing content from the account further?
No, says Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Minister for Civil Defense. But at the agency the minister is responsible for, the answer sounds different.
“In any case, they are spreading something that a foreign power may intend to spread in order to make us worried,” says Mikael Östlund, press officer at the authority.
It was a year ago that Carl-Oskar Bohlin shared a tweet from the American influencer Lauren Southern, known for her right-wing extremist opinion-making. In the original video, there was a warning about how AI is used in influence operations, something the minister passed on to his around 45,000 followers. “The ability and effectiveness of influence operations risk increasing avalanche-like with disruptive technology shifts,” wrote Carl-Oskar Bohlin at X.
Now, a US indictment against two Russian government employees shows that the production company Tenet Media, where Lauren Southern is employed, is said to have been secretly financed by the Russian news agency RT. In total, just over SEK 100 million is said to have been transferred from the Russian government employees to the American company. In turn, influencers would push specific issues – such as questioning support for Ukraine – to their millions of followers. On YouTube alone, the videos are said to have received more than 16 million views.
In light of the American indictment, Carl-Oskar Bohlin has been criticized for not checking his sources better. But the Minister of Civil Defense leaves the tweet on X.
“For the simple reason that it is difficult to misunderstand,” Bohlin writes to DN.
“Of course, one should refrain from spreading harmful narratives from foreign powers. However, it is a somewhat strange accusation that my warning about deepfakes and manipulated videos would in itself constitute Russian disinformation. With such a threshold, it will be difficult to talk about or warn about the phenomenon at all,” the Minister continues.
Carl-Oskar Bohlin is responsible for the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency, MPF. Countering deception and disinformation, including rumours and propaganda, is one of the Authority’s main tasks.
When DN reaches press officer Mikael Östlund, he gives general advice on how to think about senders who are known to have both left- and right-wing extremist views, and how to avoid becoming part of influence operations.
"It’s about evoking emotions. If you get upset by something you read, you can think about it. Is this someone who wants to upset me? he says.
If you share information from an account, do you give that account legitimacy at the same time?
"In any case, you spread something that may not be true. And which a foreign power intends to spread in Sweden to make us worried. Or to influence public opinion. Or make us distrust information in general even more. I’m not going to say that you’re guilty of anything, but you should think about it, so that you don’t share things that someone else with an evil intention wants you to share. Is it extra important to double-check what the original source is if you are an influencer or a public figure with a large following?
"Yes, that applies to everyone, but if you have a lot of followers in general, it’s more important maybe that you don’t share things that you’re not sure are true.
Carl-Oskar Bohlin is the minister responsible for your agency and has done exactly what you warn about. How do you see it?
"You have to ask him about that. We do not register what is shared and published in Sweden. Our task is to watch when foreign powers direct information from abroad towards Sweden in order to influence us.
How should one interpret that the minister’s message goes against yours, as you just described it to me?
"We give general advice, we don’t have any messages of our own. The general advice is that you should know why you are sharing. You should think carefully so that you do not unknowingly become complicit in spreading foreign information.
In an updated version of the tweet, Carl-Oskar Bohlin has written:
“Clarification to avoid active misunderstandings: The purpose of the post is not to draw attention to the sender who is highly controversial, but to demonstrate the tools that this type of actor will use in the future,” the minister writes.
I would expect the head of a government agency for psychological defence to be citing own sources and investigations, or, at least, from respected research organizations, rather than from an “influencer,” not matter who this is. The fact that Lauren Southern is far-right figure makes the thing even worse. (And, not to forget, a government official should not use Twitter at all.)
Yeah, at this point “minister of anything tweets anything at all” should be damning enough. Doesn’t matter that you tweet, you’re still helping Musk promote fascism.
Ooooh, it’s the same guy! I thought the psycological defence guy was someone else. No, OK, this guy is just pure misinformation then, he also participated in an Epoch Times pod as the head of that agency.
it is a somewhat strange indictment that my warning about deepfakes and doctored videos would in itself constitute Russian disinformation.
Has anyone told him he can preface sharing things like this with a joke or snarky comment, to make it clear the information is good but from a shit source? “Even a total asshole of a broken clock can be right twice a day” or something might be sufficient.
I mean, that’s not his belief though.
I haven’t seen the video in question, but i doubt it’s a harmless warning.
If you make a comment critizing a specific piece of propaganda, then you have to reference it. Claiming that quoting or referencing something is an “endorsement” of that thing, is complete nonsense.
The situation is different: He uncritically shared a video warning about AI disinformation which itself came from Lauren Southern, a far-right, Russian-financed influencer. I.e. the video he shared was probably unproblematic in itself, but it led people to a problematic account, without any type of warning.
Oh okay, thanks. That makes sense then yeah.
I couldnt read the linked source and wasnt really able to understand it well from the post summary.
Sorry about that - I also found the original Swedish article to be a bit of a confusing mess.
I think, as a public servant and especially a minister supposed to be responsible for curbing misinformation, you have a responsibility for which sources you use. As a public representative, using a source grants it legitimacy. If you later learn that a source you helped promote was run by by a hostile disinformation campaign, it’s clear that you have messed up, and you need to do something to redeem the situation.
