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| New York Times, May 30, 2016. Thomas Nilsen, ‘‘Norway’s PST Says Russian Intelligence Targets Individuals The Inde- pendent Barents Observer, Feb. 3, 2017. Reid Standish, Why is Finland Able to Fend off Putin’s Information War Foreign Policy, Mar. 1, 2017. Committee Staff Discussion with Finnish Government Officials, 2017. 618 Ibid. 619 Embassy of Finland, Information Provided in Response to Questions from US. Senator Ben Cardin, Sept. 20, 2017. US Experts Gird Finnish Officials for Information War Yle News, Jan. 22, 2016. 621 Yle Uutiset, ‘‘Yle’s Russian Service A Quarter-Century of News and Controversy Oct. 10, 2015. 622 Ibid. vestigations on the trolls themselves, like Finnish reporter Jessikka Aro, who has been peppered with abusive emails, vilified as a drug dealer on social media sites and mocked as a delusional bimbo in a music video posted on YouTube.’’ 614 The head of Norway s national police has also accused Russia’s intelligence services of targeting Norwegian individuals, especially those with dual citizenship or family members in Russia. 615 In Finland, which shares an mile border with Russia, Russian disinformation campaigns intensified in 2012, when Kremlin- linked media outlets used doctored photos to accuse Finnish authorities of child abduction in custody battles between Finnish-Rus- sian couples. 616 And in the lead up to its 2015 parliamentary elections, several Twitter accounts, all with official-sounding names that appeared to be linked to Finland’s parliament, began tweeting about popular political topics. 617 Initially, the tweets contained content that was considered reasonable and contributed to mainstream discussion, which earned the accounts a relatively large following among people who reportedly thought they were official parliament accounts. Then, just before the election, the accounts took a sharp turn and began tweeting misinformation and fringe viewpoints in an attempt to muddy the waters according to Finnish government officials. The officials noted that the attempt was somewhat clumsy and did not accomplish its aims, however they also pointed out that genuine clumsiness should not lead to complacency.’’ 618 In that vein, Finnish government officials report that the country is strengthening its ‘‘whole-of-society preparedness system . . . to take into account the new hybrid challenges including by focusing on media literacy skills. 619 With the Ukraine crisis and refugee and migrant issues in mind, the government recently recruited two US. experts from Harvard and MIT to work with over 100 Finnish officials on how to best counter disinformation campaigns. Jed Willard from Harvard emphasized to participants that the focus should not be on the Kremlin’s narrative, but the Finnish narrative—that the best way to respond . . . is with a positive Finnish story.’’ 620 Fin- land has also recognized the challenge of providing immigrant populations, who may not speak the national language, with news outlets in their native language that can serve as alternatives to outlets from their countries of origin. To that end, in May 2013, Finland s state-owned television station, Yle, began a daily Russian- language TV news broadcast to offer a Finnish perspective to its Russian-speaking minority of approximately 70,000 people. 621 Yle has a reported viewership of about 200,000 for its five-minute broadcast, which can also be seen in Russia. 622 Finland has also VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00116 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 111 Morgan Chalfant, Denmark, Sweden Team Up to Counter Russian Fake News ’’ The Hill, Aug. 31, 2017. Emma Lofgren, How Sweden’s Getting Ready for the Election-Year Information War The Download 0.63 Mb. Share with your friends:
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