AlterPublics researcher helps analyse Russian-linked disinformation campaign
Postdoc Jakob Bæk Kristensen from AlterPublics has acted as central research expert in the Danish Broadcasting Corporation's (DR) investigative journalistic uncovering of a Russian-linked disinformation campaign in the Nordics.
The news coverage is related to the documentary series 'Skyggekrigen' (The Shadow War), which DR has produced in collaboration with a range of Nordic public service colleagues, and Jakob Bæk Kristensen has contributed as an expert in a number of news items on both radio, TV and online in the Danish part of the coverage.
Here he has helped to explain how Russian intelligence officers are behind a website called 'Independent North' and an associated Twitter profile, which produce news-like articles in English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish and tries to 'boost' their rankings in search engines like Google to spread disinformation.
Data from AlterPublics
Using data from AlterPublic's comprehensive analysis of alternative news environments in the Nordics, Jakob Bæk Kristensen has also been able to help the investigative journalists fine-tune their mapping of a network of 152 people in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland who share systematic disinformation, which originates from or are being reinforced through a massive spread from Russian actors, troll factories and state media.
On DR's website you can read more news from the documentary series The Shadow War (in Danish), which is a collaboration between a team of investigative journalists from Nordic public service media: DR from Denmark, NRK from Norway, SVT from Sweden and Yle from Finland. The series can be watched here (in Danish).
Below we have collected a number of links to Jacob Bæk Kristensen's appearances in the coverage:
Large network in the Nordics spreads disinformation: Russia spreads propaganda 'with great force'