Analysis: "Polarized debate and disinformation about the corona virus"

The increased polarization of the Swedish debate in recent years is also clearly evident in the discussion of the government and the authorities' handling of the corona virus. Those with the weakest confidence in the social institutions are usually the loudest critics.

The discussion itself does not seem strange. Although confidence in government is still high in Sweden, it has weakened in recent decades. The fact that different countries act in partially different ways to stop the corona virus also paves the way for a discussion here at home about the strategy the government and the Public Health Authority have chosen.

Right now, intensive social media is being conducted on the work of government and government to curb the spread of the corona virus.

The critics believe that Sweden has chosen an overly cautious line in combating the infection. They are calling for tougher hold and that Swedish society will more or less boom again. There are also some researchers here, which undermine criticism on social media.

What is surprising is the fierceness of the debate. Often, the question is reduced to liking one or the other. Disbelief towards authorities and messages from community institutions shines through.

This is used by those who spread false information and sometimes pure disinformation. This has happened in several ways in the traces of the corona virus and is both about creating obscurity about the infection itself and undermining the confidence of senior executives.

An impact operation, which seems to be of Russian origin, has been based on disseminating information that the corona virus was actually produced by the US intelligence service CIA. Thousands of Russia-linked social media accounts have participated in what US government officials perceive as a coordinated disinformation campaign.

Interesting in this context is that this theme has also been used previously for similar disinformation - with successful results.

For example, in the 1980s, the information spread that the AIDS virus had been produced by the CIA in US laboratories. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki was one of several prominent figures who spread this fascinating story.

Another is the Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson who made a state-funded film about the CIA's role behind the AIDS virus. Roy used, among other things, an East German professor to prove his thesis.

However, it all turned out to be a scam. After the end of the Cold War, it was revealed that the whole was instead a cleverly executed propaganda operation by the KGB and its East German counterpart Stasi. The purpose was to try to blame the United States for the AIDS virus.

Disseminating this type of seriously inaccurate information is facilitated in today's digital world where articles and data are quickly shared on social media. In some groups there is also a grounded suspicion against the authorities and social institutions. Here false information and disinformation makes it easier to gain a foothold. The messages are then spread, often accompanied by strong opinions.

Here it may be good to keep in mind that those who seem to have the strongest opinions may actually be the ones with the worst knowledge. In any case, there are studies that indicate this.

Following the Russian invasion of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, the Washington Post published a survey of how Americans viewed a military intervention in the conflict. Only one in six survey respondents knew Ukraine was low, most did not have a clue. What was interesting, however, was that there was a direct link between this ignorance and a strong view that the United States should intervene militarily. The strongest was the support for a military intervention among those who believed that Ukraine was in Latin America or Australia!

The following year, Public Policy Polling conducted another survey of US voters asking whether they were for or against a US bomb attack against Agrabah.

Republican voters were, not unexpectedly, more favorably disposed to a bomb attack than Democratic voters.

Most interesting, however, was that 55 percent of Democrats voters and 49 percent of Republicans actually had a clearly defined opinion on the issue. Agrabah is not in reality, but is the invented country in Disney's cartoon Aladdin from 1992.

Thus, in both these cases, those with the strongest views were the ones who actually had the least knowledge!

So for various reasons, there is every reason to be careful about some of the information that is currently being disseminated online and in social media about various theories and aspects of the coronavirus.