Sweden's Psychological Defense Agency to Combat Fake News in Upcoming Election

Ahead of Sweden's September 11 general election, the country's government has formed an agency dedicated to tackling the spread of misinformation. The Swedish Psychological Defense Agency was created on January 1 to combat the disinformation that might undermine the upcoming elections.

Swedish Governmental Agency to Combat Misinformation:

The agency would be offering support to Swedish municipalities, regions, companies and organisations and contribute to improving the resilience of the Swedish population. The psychological defence agency aims to identify, analyse, and prevent the influence of misinformation in Sweden.

The Swedish Psychological Defense Agency has listed its mission and purpose on its website. The mission is stated as, "The coordination and development of agencies' and other actors' activities within Sweden's psychological defence." The agency says its purpose is" to safeguard our open and democratic society, the free formation of opinion and Sweden's freedom and independence."

Director-General Henrik Landerholm, Sweden's previous ambassador to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, manages the Swedish government-run public agency. The head office of the agency is in Karlstad, Sweden, with another branch in Solna Municipality, Sweden. As per this Forbes article, the agency plans to combat misleading information directed at Swedish interests, both national and international. The agency would combat misinformation that aims to weaken the country's resilience and unduly influence people's perceptions, behaviours, and decision-making.

Sweden's initiative follows after the French government's plans in June 2021 to create an agency to combat foreign disinformation and fake news, as per this Bloomberg report. The plans were announced ahead of the French presidential election to be held in April 2022.

Organisations Tackling the Vast Spread of Misinformation in India:

A study titled, 'Prevalence and source analysis of COVID-19 misinformation in 138 countries' published in IFLA Journal on May 2021 indicated that India had produced the highest social media misinformation regarding Covid-19 at 18.07%.

The study suggested that the reason for India's social media misinformation epidemic is the increasing social media penetration rates from the last few years, which could increase in the next few years. The increased consumption of social media content during the pandemic and social media users' lack of digital literacy has also led to the increasing spread of misinformation, as per the study.

However, the Indian Government is rolling out several initiatives to combat misinformation. The Press Information Bureau has launched the PIB Fact Check initiative to tackle the prevalent misinformation about government policies across social media. Their Twitter regularly handles tweets about websites with misleading or fraudulent job offers and policies.

A message in circulation claiming that your @TheOfficialSBI account has been blocked is #FAKE #PIBFactCheck

▶️ Do not respond to emails/SMS asking to share your personal or banking details.

▶️ If you receive any such message, report immediately at report.phishing@sbi.co.in pic.twitter.com/HXj8Tz1svh

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) January 6, 2022

Besides governmental initiatives, global organisations such as International Fact-Checking Network and First Draft News attempt to clamp down on misinformation. The Logical Indian operates its own Fact Check program, which has tackled the rapid spread of misinformation in Covid-19 and beyond.

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