Ahead of the Swedish elections this Sunday, ex-NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen talks bots, fake news, and interference with Raw Politics' host Tesa Arcilla.
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With the Swedish elections looming close now, an Oxford Internet Institute study found on Thursday that one in three news articles shared on Twitter about Sweden's upcoming election is from "junk news" websites that deliberately publish misleading information.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen's organisation has been studying how Russian bots meddle in the Swedish elections. Raw Politics' host Tesa Arcilla talked to the former NATO Secretary General about the findings.
"The bots serve the purpose of accumulating news about specific issues, like immigration for Sweden because it’s an issue that creates division in the Swedish society so the bots can generate news that is fake news," he said.
"To prevent undermining from the Russian side, politicians in Sweden should address the issues," he added.
According to Rasmussen, 2019 European elections are very vulnerable to meddling because "in certain countries, you have a very low turn-out for European elections so it’s very easy for Russia and other countries to meddle in them."