Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jan 29, 2023 17 tweets 8 min read Read on X
In today's #vatnik soup I'll be discussing about Finland and how it fights Russian disinformation and propaganda. I'll also introduce some of the methods that Finnish vatniks have applied in order to brainwash the Finnish folk from all levels of society.

1/16
Let's start with journalism: In the Press Freedom Index, Finland has been at the top 5 along with the other Nordic countries for decades now.

According to Christophe Deloire of Reporters without Borders, the biggest threat to press freedom is the so-called...

2/16
... "Fox News Model", in which the media both polarizes and attracts audience share with extreme opinions.

Countries like Russia and China have basically no freedom of press, and pretty much all media is controlled by the state.

3/16
This leaves very little room for foreign information operations, as all public information is checked and validated. One of the first things that Putin did after invading Ukraine was to demolish any kind of free press.

4/16
Free press can also be used against a nation: information operations often focus on establishing fake news sources and disinformation mills for spreading polarizing content. In Finland, the biggest outlet for this kind of "information laundering" is MV-Lehti.

5/16
In it's early days, around 2015, the blog focused on anti-immigration narratives, but eventually started pushing pro-Russian bullshit. The two latest Editor-in-Chiefs, Juha Korhonen and Janus Putkonen are straight up Putinists.

6/16
Finnish vatniks, especially Johan Bäckman, have also established associations that are named very similarly than some official, trusted associations. One example is Toimittajaliitto, translated as The Union of Journalists in Finland.

7/16
Incidentally, the official org is called Journalistiliitto, and the translation in English is exactly the same, making it very easy to mix up these two. The fake association has provided "press passes" to various "independent journalists", like the pro-Russian Panu Huuhtanen.8/16
Pro-Russian actors also try to defame the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE and its journalists. Bäckman was convicted of harassment of YLE journalist Jessikka Aro who's been actively dissiminating the Russian info ops.

9/16
YLE in general plays a big part in fighting disinformation, and they have established activities such as Faktabaari (FactBar) to fight the spread of false information and propaganda.

10/16
There are several other plans on a national level to do the same in the future: for example deepfake videos and AI will be a big challenge in the near future, and YLE has established organization for detecting and fighting them.

11/16
Another important aspect of Finnish battle against disinformation is the education. In Finnish schools, children start learning at very young age about the concept of fake news and mis- and disinformation.

12/16
One example of this is Koulukino, that produces high quality video teaching material about disinformation for Finnish schools. They've created a lot of material to support media education and to fight against disinformation.

13/16
But probably the biggest reason why Russian disinformation simply doesn't work well in Finland is that we were at war with USSR quite recently. The whole conflict started with false flag operation called Mainila shelling, and there were similar incidents throughout the war.
14/16
After the fall of USSR many prominent politicians and businessmen succumbed into the 'Ostpolitik' and trade with Russia. For example, one Finnish ex-PM was involved in the Nord Stream business with Gerhard Schröder, and another one was board member in SberBank.

15/16
One current member of the Parliament was involved in the Russian ice hockey business and did a lot of business with the Rotenberg oligarch family and with Gennadi Timchenko. After the war started, most of them stopped doing business with the Russians.

16/16

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Aug 18
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explain the Alaska Fiasco and how it marks the peak of Trump’s two-year betrayal of Ukraine. What was sold as “peace talks” turned into a spectacle of weakness, humiliation, empty promises, and photo-ops that handed Putin exactly what he wanted.

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Let’s start with the obvious: Trump desperately wants the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, mainly because Obama got one. That’s why he’s now LARPing as a “peace maker” in every conflict: Israel-Gaza, Azerbaijan-Armenia, India-Pakistan, and of course Ukraine-Russia.

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Another theory is that Putin holds kompromat — compromising material such as videos or documents — that would put Trump in an extremely bad light. Some have suggested it could be tied to the Epstein files or Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

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Read 25 tweets
Aug 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about engagement farming: a cynical social media tactic to rack up likes, shares, and comments. From rage farming to AI-powered outrage factories, engagement farming is reshaping online discourse and turning division into profit.

1/23 Photo by JULIE OLIVER /Postmedia
Engagement farming is a social media tactic aimed at getting maximum likes, shares, and comments, with truth being optional. It thrives on provocative texts, images, or videos designed to spark strong reactions, boost reach, and turn online outrage into clicks and cash.

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One subset of engagement farming is rage farming: a tactic built to provoke strong negative emotions through outrageous or inflammatory claims. By triggering anger or moral outrage, these posts often generate 100s or even 1,000s of heated comments, amplifying their reach.

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Read 24 tweets
Aug 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the autocratic concept of “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars”: the idea that the leader is wise and just, but constantly sabotaged by corrupt advisors. This narrative shields the ruler from blame, and it’s used by both Putin and Trump today.

1/20 Image
The phrase “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars” (Царь хороший, бояре плохие), also known as Naïve Monarchism, refers to a long-standing idea in Russian political culture: the ruler is good and benevolent, but his advisors are corrupt, incompetent and responsible for all failures.

2/20 Image
From this perception, any positive action taken by the government is viewed as being an accomplishment of the benevolent leader, whereas any negative one is viewed as being caused by lower-level bureaucrats or “boyars”, without the approval of the leader.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian politician and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Kiriyenko. He’s best known for running both domestic and foreign disinformation and propaganda operations for the Kremlin.

1/20 Image
On paper, and in photos, Kiriyenko is just as boring as most of the Kremlin’s “political technologists”: between 2005-2016 he headed the Rosatom nuclear energy company, but later played a leading role in the governance of Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine.

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What is a political technologist? In Russia, they’re spin doctors & propaganda architects who shape opinion, control narratives, and manage elections — often by faking opposition, staging events, and spreading disinfo to maintain Putin’s power and the illusion of democracy.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 27
Let me show you how a Pakistani (or Indian, they're usually the same) AI slop farm/scam operates. The account @designbonsay is a prime example: a relatively attractive, AI-generated profile picture and a ChatGPT-style profile description are the first red flags.

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The profile's posts are just generic engagement farming, usually using AI-generated photos of celebrities or relatively attractive women.

These posts are often emotionally loaded and ask the user to interact with them ("like and share if you agree!").

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Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.

Country code for the phone number is in Pakistan.

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Read 5 tweets
Jul 15
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American lawyer and politician, Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee). He’s best-known for opposing the aid to Ukraine, undermining NATO by calling the US to withdraw from the alliance, and for fighting with a bunch of braindead dogs online.

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Like many of the most vile vatniks out there, “Based Mike” is a lawyer by profession. He hails from the holy land of Mormons, Utah, where he faces little political competition, allowing him to make the most outrageous claims online without risking his Senate seat.

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Before becoming a senator, Mike fought to let a nuclear waste company dump Italian radioactive waste in Utah, arguing it was fine if they just diluted it. The state said no, the public revolted, and the courts told poor Mikey to sit down.

3/21 Image
Read 23 tweets

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