Jessikka Aro
Jessikka Aro (born c.1980) is a Finnish journalist working for Finland's public service broadcaster Yle. In September 2014, she began to investigate pro-Russian Internet trolls, but became a victim of their activities herself.[1][2] This harassment led to three people being convicted in October 2018.[3]
Russian trolls
Aro saw the actions of Kremlin-connected internet trolls as "a threat to Finnish people's freedom of speech" telling Deutsche Welle (DW) she "was really astonished to find out that it's quite big—super big actually."[4]
After a visit to St Petersburg to investigate the Internet Research Agency, where she interviewed employees at the "troll factory" who create fake online accounts and produce fake stories, she encountered a significant backlash from pro-Russian trolls.[4][1][5] She describes responses as including a phone call from a Ukrainian number with the sound of a pistol firing in the other end, as well as a cell phone text message purporting to be from her father (who had died 20 years earlier) indicating he was keeping watch of her.[6] Another particularly vocal critic was Johan Bäckman who made false claims about her assisting the Estonian and United States security services.[2][6] Aro told Foreign Policy magazine: "The goal of these campaigns is to discredit the voices in Finland that are critical of Russia."[7] Her series of articles led to Aro receiving Bonnier's Award for Journalism in March 2016.[8]
The European Union told the Sydney Morning Herald it was an escalation of Russian "information warfare" against the West.[6] She has published an article in the journal of the centre-right European Peoples Party describing the "brutal" harassment that she attributes to Russian trolls.[9] This behaviour includes doxing such as the revelation of her drug conviction for possession when she was 20 which was turned into a false claim she is a "NATO drug dealer".[9][10][3]
Legal case
In October 2018, the Helsinki District Court found Ilja Janitskin, Johan Bäckman and a woman guilty of sustained defamation against Aro. The final judgement said the two men had committed "an exceptionally aggravated set of crimes". Janitskin, the founder of the MV-Lehti website was sentenced to 22 months in jail for 16 criminal counts while Bäckman received a year's suspended jail sentence for aggravated defamation and stalking.[3] They had to pay damages to Aro and other plaintiffs in the case.[11] The New York Times called this "the first time that a European country had taken action against pro-Russian disinformation spread through social media, websites and news outlets controlled by or linked to Russia." Bäckman described his conviction as "another dirty trick by NATO."[3]
See also
References
- ^ a b Higgins, Andrew (30 May 2016). "Effort to Expose Russia's 'Troll Army' Draws Vicious Retaliation". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ a b Aro, Jessikka (9 November 2015). "My Year as a Pro-Russia Troll Magnet: International Shaming Campaign and an SMS from Dead Father". Yle Kioski. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d Higgins, Andrew (19 October 2018). "Three Internet Trolls Convicted of Systematic Defamation Against Journalist in Finland". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
- ^ a b Schultz, Teri (17 October 2018). "Pro-Kremlin online harassment on trial in Finland". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ "Yle Kioski Traces the Origins of Russian Social Media Propaganda – Never-before-seen Material from the Troll Factory". Yle. 20 February 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ a b c Miller, Nick (13 March 2016). "Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro's inquiry into Russian trolls stirs up a hornet's nest". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ Standish, Reid (1 March 2017). "Why Is Finland Able to Fend Off Putin's Information War?". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- ^ Siren, Torasti; Huhtinen, Aki-Mauri (2018). "Jedi and Starmen—Cyber in the Service of the Light Side of the Force". In Lehto, Martti; Neittaanmäki, Pekka (eds.). Cyber Security: Power and Technology. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. p. 91.
- ^ a b Aro, Jessikka (June 2016). "The cyberspace war: propaganda and trolling as warfare tools". European View. 15 (1): 121–132. doi:10.1007/s12290-016-0395-5.
- ^ Aro, Jessikka; Yates, Will (6 October 2017). "Jessikka Aro: How pro-Russian trolls tried to destroy me". BBC Trending. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
- ^ "Jessikka Aro: Finn jailed over pro-Russia hate campaign against journalist". BBC News. 18 October 2018. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
External links
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