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

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.

2/20 Image
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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.

3/20 Image
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.

1/5 Image
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!").

2/5 Image
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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.

3/5 Image
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.

1/21 Image
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.

2/21 Image
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
Jul 14
While Ukrainians are terror bombed on a daily basis, rich Russians live in Europe like kings and queens.

This young lady lives in Portugal, and travels freely to Ibiza...
...the Alps...
... and of course Paris.
Read 5 tweets
Jul 7
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American national security policy professional and the current under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby). He’s best-known for fighting with cartoon dogs online and for halting military aid to Ukraine.

1/21 Image
Elbridge "Cheese" Colby earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Before entering government, he worked at top think tanks and in the intelligence community, focusing on nuclear policy and strategic planning.

2/21 Image
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Cheese quickly became a key voice for a “China First” strategy, arguing the US must prioritize military buildup in Asia over commitments in Europe or the Middle East. He sees (or saw, rather) Taiwan as the core test of US credibility.

3/21 Image
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Read 23 tweets
Jul 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’m going to talk about… Vatnik Soup! As some of you know, we also have a website where you can find every soup ever published. The site also has other useful resources, making it the most comprehensive resource on Russian disinformation & vatniks.

1/15 Image
Unfortunately, Elon has flagged the website as malware, as he might not be very happy about the soups I wrote about him - so far, they have garnered over 60 million views on X/Twitter.

The “freedom of speech” spokesperson doesn’t seem too keen on free speech, after all.

2/15 Image
The heart & soul of the website is of course the soups page. There you can find all 360+ soups, which can be sorted chronologically, by popularity, etc. You can also search for soups by title or even in the soup text:

3/15

vatniksoup.com/en/soups/
Read 15 tweets

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