Misinformation and Disinformation in Social Media as the Pulse of Finnish National Security

Abstract

Social media is becoming more and more of a security threat. Dissatisfaction with the content and quality of the information flow is increasing not only at a national level, but also at the level of people’s everyday lives. Social media is one of the key channels for distributing misinformation and disinformation and has also become a key instrument for influencing political activity in particular. We define misinformation as shared information which is unintentionally false, whereas disinformation refers to false information which is purposefully shared for systematic informational influencing as well as for propaganda. The post-Cold War age has created a new global power order by using information – which is increasingly shared through social media – for political purposes. Small countries like Finland have become more and more dependent on the global information flow, while at the same time increasingly being subjected to the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation. Hence, social media has become an ever-more crucial factor in terms of national security threats. At the same time, however, it is also a potential platform for creating (generalised) trust in national security by means of sharing correct information among citizens. This study focuses on the flow of misinformation and disinformation on social media in relation to armed forces and national security. In this contribution, we also address issues related to the role of generalised trust for psychological resilience and explore the European Union’s role in countering disinformation.