How is Sweden fighting fake news?

The website Politisk Inkorrekt, with the slogan "nothing but political correctness", published fake news.

Sweden is seeing a worrying rise in hate speech and the sharing of misinformation about immigration, according to Ehsan Fadakar, a social media columnist for the newspaper Aftonbladet.

Sweden has long been a popular destination for migrants. The number of asylum applications in Sweden doubled from 2014 to 2015, reaching more than 160,000 – and around half of these were accepted.

However, in Germany, immigration is causing a lot of anger and resentment, and with it the emergence of many nationalist groups in the country.

Here are four things to know about the fake news situation in Sweden:

News publishers have a direct relationship with their readers.

Sweden is a small country with a population of 10 million, four national newspapers, and publicly owned television and radio networks.

With a relatively small media landscape, people have strong relationships with brands. With cheaper mobile data plans, early investment in apps and mobile-friendly websites, it’s becoming easier for Swedish users to subscribe to news publishers. That also means there’s less access to Facebook for news than there is in the US.

According to Schibsted, the parent company of Aftonbladet and Svenska Dagbladet, 90% of its daily online readers access the site directly or via an app. The spread of fake news stories on Facebook has not increased as much as in other countries.

Facebook's Effort to Burst the Filter Bubble

Even so, controlling the amount of fake news on Facebook remains a difficult task. The social network has been criticized for not doing enough to tackle the problem. The tools used in the US and Germany rely on users reporting problems. In Germany, Facebook has hired third-party fact-checkers to find a solution.

Last September, a new website called Politisk Inkorrekt, whose slogan is “nothing but politically correct,” reported that Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven owns an extremely expensive watch.

On Facebook, the story garnered around 1,000 shares and 2,000 reactions. After investigating, Aftonbladet discovered that it was just a gift and not worth as much as the website said. Aftonbladet then spent between 3,000 and 4,000 Swedish krona ($340-$450) to expand the story, targeting people who had commented on the fake news.

“It’s an expensive way to do it,” said Ehsan Fadakar, the paper’s social media columnist. “But Aftonbladet is a popular Swedish news publisher on Facebook. We have a responsibility to protect people from fake news.”

Continue to differentiate between real and fake

Content posted to Facebook often lacks context — it's not always clear whether a statement is opinion, analysis, or news — and publishers are thinking about ways to make real news more identifiable.

One Swedish daily has begun posting footnotes stating that the opinions expressed do not reflect the views of the paper. Another Swedish newspaper, Expressen, has added two links at the end of each article, one inviting people to point out any factual inaccuracies in the article, and the other to report problems with the article to the press regulators, the press ombudsman.

“It’s a way to show whether a newspaper has ethics,” said Anna Gullberg, editor-in-chief of local newspaper MittMedia. “Many other news publishers are ready to follow this path.”

“There is some discussion that every website that meets journalistic standards should be certified,” said Thomas Eriksson, head of digital content at Swedish publisher Egmont Publishing. “It’s a pretty cool and interesting idea, where readers can immediately tell where the news is coming from.”

Fake Facebook Groups

According to Fadakar, a common tactic among right-wing groups on Facebook is to open pages with misleading names, such as “Support for the Swedish Police,” to attract followers.

"Of course, everyone supports the Swedish police, but when you look at the pages that these groups share, you see who they are actually run by. They can attract up to 400,000 new followers. People may unfollow when they find out the truth, but hardly anyone wants to admit their mistakes."

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