Sweden Launches Psychological Defense Agency To Fight Disinformation

Swedish authorities have launched a new government agency to fight disinformation—deceptive information that’s spread intentionally.

The new branch will be called the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency, and it will work together with academics, the military, and the media to protect the country against disinformation, especially from foreign governments. 

According to Forbes, the agency’s main aim is to detect and respond to “inappropriate influences” and other information that may mislead citizens, companies, and organizations.

“It can be disinformation aimed at weakening the country’s resilience and the population’s will to defend itself or unduly influencing people’s perceptions, behaviors, and decision making,” the agency said on its site. 

“Psychological defense must also strengthen the population’s ability to detect and resist influence campaigns and disinformation,” it added. 

As per The Hill, while the authorities did not explicitly name any actors it believed would interfere in the country’s elections, its domestic intelligence agency did report after the 2018 polls that there was a “foreign power [exerting] influence on Sweden in the long term.” 

A report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has recently found that Sweden has been the victim of COVID-19 disinformation, though most of which is spread through social media channels such as TikTok and Facebook. 

Other disinformation campaigns that have seemed to gotten hold of the public include the 5G conspiracy theory, the report noted. 

“There has also been a number of disinformation narratives related to the spread of the disease, its ‘actual’ mortality, and strategies to avoid getting infected,” it said. 

[via Forbes and The Hill, cover image via Brett Critchley | Dreamstime.com]