Data from AlterPublics helps explain the 'Onkel Reje case'
The popular Danish children's TV host Mads Geertsen, known as the character Onkel Reje ("Uncle Shrimp"), went on sick leave from his job at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) last week after he was exposed to a coordinated smear campaign on Social Media.
- What we have experienced in the past 10 days is a smear campaign, it is harassment, and then it is direct threats against Mads Geertsen and DR, said Morten Skov, head of the Department for Children and Youth in DR in connection with the sick leave.
After looking at the case through data from AlterPublics, researcher Jakob Bæk Kristensen has been able to describe how the opposition to Onkel Reje in particular arose and spread in Facebook groups that came together during the corona pandemic.
Therefore, Jakob Bæk Kristensen has participated as an expert in several Danish media, where he has described the development of the case and how the people behind the smear campaign interpret Onkel Reje into various well-known conspiracy theories.
- In the groups, there exists a culture which is against the system. It typically covers some form of anti-elite, anti-mainstream and anti-science. The members of the groups like to jump on the bandwagon that covers all criticism of the mainstream and what they see as the elite, Jakob Bæk Kristensen told dr.dk.
Below, we have compiled a list of Jakob Bæk Kristensen's press appearances (all in Danish):