Authors: Dominic Saari, Panu Moilanen, and Miriam Hautala, University of Jyväskylä
Reviewer: Mikko Salo, Faktabaari
Introduction
- In general, Finland has a decent level of resilience against disinformation and information warfare. The main reasons behind this are the relatively high quality of the Finnish education system (and accordingly, high levels of education among the population), a long tradition of media literacy and institutional trust among the population.
- The continuing polarization of Finnish society and a possible decline in education and economic levels cause concerns over Finland’s ability to resist disinformation in the future.
- Despite far-right groups still being marginal, the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) warns of increasing radicalisation fueled by far-right communities and networks online. According to Supo, individuals and small groups constitute the biggest threat. In December 2021, the Finnish police identified and arrested seven men on the suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. Europol maintained that the group was influenced by accelerationist, neo-Nazis and satanist ideals.
- Overall, Finnish authorities missed the opportunity to build a more comprehensive situational awareness on what is really happening, especially online. Instead, major focus was put on Russian trolls and disinformation narratives that have a smaller impact on the Finnish public debate. Contrarily to the past, where preparation against information warfare and disinformation has been rather minimal, authorities, civil society organisations, and independent media have recently stepped up their efforts in combatting disinformation and information warfare.
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The initial project (V1 of this factsheet) was Funded by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in 2022. Further updates have been funded on EU DisinfoLab’s own resources. If you’re interested in supporting our efforts, get in touch.
The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of EU DisinfoLab. This factsheet does not represent an endorsement by EU DisinfoLab of any organisation.