Sweden has created a new agency to combat disinformation ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in September.
The Swedish Psychological Safety Agency, which began operations on January 1, was established to “identify, analyze and respond to the impact of unnecessary information influence and other misleading information.”
The agency also said that "will protect our open and democratic society and free opinions by identifying, analyzing and responding to inappropriate influences and other misleading information directed at Sweden or Swedish interests."
As Euronews reports, in 2018, Sweden's domestic intelligence agency said that foreign powers did not conduct any comprehensive campaign to influence the Swedish parliamentary elections.
However, he added that "a foreign power exerts influence in Sweden in the long term."
The new government authority did not name any countries it suspects have participated in the disinformation campaigns.
The agency also stated that “will provide support to the population, agencies, municipalities, media, voluntary protection organizations and civil society in general, and will work to increase coordination between these actors".
France, which has presidential elections in April, also created an agency last year to combat foreign disinformation and fake news.
(Full article at Euronews)