In a report, TV4’s Kalla Fakta has updated the troll accusations against the Sweden Democrats. This since a reporter with a hidden camera goes undercover in the party’s communications department, and on the YouTube channel Riks.
The program has the title “Undercover in the troll factory” and in the first part, SD politician Julian Kroon describes how the party should have worked before the 2018 election, but says he does not know if SD still works in the same way.
Åkesson: Pure nonsense
SD leader Jimmie Åkesson sees nothing controversial about political parties trying to get their message out in different ways.
– As I remember it, it was about ten people from the youth association who were active on the internet during working hours under their own names, so there is nothing secret behind it in any way, says Åkesson about the ten so-called “net warriors”.
Trolling against US elections
Accusations of trolling have been directed at SD for many years.
In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election, social media came under intense media scrutiny.
Reports of Russian influence on the US election using troll factories in Saint Petersburg and the Cambridge Analytica scandal demonstrated how the international social media platforms could potentially be used to influence the democratic process.
In 2017, SVT was able to show that the large Facebook page “Support the Swedish Police” sponsored posts to reach the Social Democrats’ followers. In an interview with SVT, Joakim Wallerstein confirmed that they “help other sides”, but did not want to specify who was helped.
SD has previously confirmed that they collaborates with influencers and have accounts where SD involvement is not clearly evident. Jimmie Åkesson completely dismisses that there would be a troll factory.
– The concept of trolls and trolling and troll factory is based on deliberately and systematically spreading misinformation. Something like that does not appear in this report, he says.