HomeTechnologySwedish agency warns of dangerous 'Hidden Agenda' memes

Swedish agency warns of dangerous ‘Hidden Agenda’ memes

The Swedish Agency for Psychological Defense has launched a campaign against online misinformation, warning Swedes of internet memes that could be used to spread misleading information.

The warning is part of a larger campaign called “Deception” launched by the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency, a new agency set up in January this year by the Swedish government to detect and analyze fake information.

“Humor, parody and satire are generally harmless forms of entertainment that can be used to spread misleading information and mock or criticize people or opinions – in the form of memes, for example,” the agency wrote on its campaign website.

“Memes can be used to distract attention from a particular topic, change the direction of a discussion, or promote a hidden agenda,” the agency said.

The agency also warns of the spread of memes via automated social media accounts known as bots, and advises Swedes on how to identify such accounts, such as looking at profile pictures, followers and account activity.

Mikael Östlund, head of communications for the Swedish Psychological Defense Agency, spoke to Swedish magazine. To go forward Regarding the project, he says: “The foreign states and powers behind the informative influence have enormous resources at their disposal to harm Sweden. It is therefore increasingly important to build our own resilience, at least in an election year like this.”

“Disinformation and outside influence can be packaged in the most innocent way. Therefore, for our first campaign, we decided to use a lighter tone and memes to counter the impact of campaigns in the same arena as these. We will build resilience together, and that will start with every social media stream,” said Nemo Stjernström, the agency’s project manager for the campaign.

Swedish Minister of the Interior Mikael Damberg previously commented on the agency’s role in January, shortly after its establishment: “A crucial responsibility of the agency in 2022 is to work to strengthen society’s capacity to detect and process disinformation against Sweden. . regarding the general election.

In recent years, Sweden has tried to counter the so-called online disinformation by giving some mainstream media outlets 13.5m kr (£1.2m) to combat ‘fake news’ in 2017 before the 2018 election.

Source: Breitbart

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