Valet or Vaalit? The Information Environment During the 2024 EU Elections in Finland and Sweden

Authors:

  • Ola Svenonius
  • Mattias Svahn

Publish date: 2025-06-25

Report number: FOI-R--5666--SE

Pages: 84

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • 2024 EU elections
  • information environment
  • information influence
  • disinformation
  • social media
  • Finland
  • Sweden

Abstract

Influence on general elections has, over the past decade, become a central component of politically motivated information operations targeting several European and North American countries. In connection with the 2024 EU elections, concerns were raised about undue interference during the campaign period, particularly with regard to public trust in the electoral system. The purpose of this report is to document the information environments during the 2024 EU elections in Finland and Sweden, and to analyse the presence of foreign state narratives. The report examines these environments from three perspectives: their structural characteristics, their thematic content, and the presence of antagonistic narratives. The analysis is primarily based on quantitative data from news media, social media, and podcasts in both countries. According to OSCE election observers, the campaigns in both countries were relatively lowkey, with modest voter turnout (40% in Finland, 53% in Sweden). Finland's information environment was marked by comparably low activity. In contrast, Sweden experienced significantly higher media pressure - particularly following TV4's revelations about the Sweden Democrats' so-called "troll factory". News outlets played an agenda-setting role in both countries, though this role was especially pronounced in Sweden. Discussions of electoral fraud and disinformation accounted for only about two percent of all mentions, but these were concentrated to Sweden and associated with TV4's investigation. The analysis of information influence focused on foreign state narratives, particularly those linked to Russia. A method called "semantic similarity" identified 744 posts closely matching 46 predefined narratives. Finnish posts were few and thematically focused on NATO, Russia, and migration. Swedish posts largely concerned the perceived left-wing media bias and national-level "hypocrisy." The most widely disseminated themes were consistent with known Russian narratives but could not be attributed to foreign influence; rather, they appear to mirror pre-existing divisions in public discourse.