Martti J. Kari, who teaches intelligence at the university, considers the fake account caught by Sofi Oksa to be quite childish.
The so-called St. Petersburg troll factory operating in Russia is expected to increase its activities in Finland as the parliamentary elections approach. Illustration picture. PASI LEISMA
Working life professor of security and strategic analysis at the University of Jyväskylä, and a former intelligence colonel Martti J. Kari revealed the other weekend an online nuisance, i.e. a troll, on Twitter that he assessed as exceptionally rude.
Kari is now warning Finnish social media users that fake accounts set up by the so-called troll factory in St. Petersburg, which operates directly under the Russian government, will appear on various services more and more, the closer the spring elections get.
Parliamentary elections will be held in Finland again on April 4. The head of the foreign policy institute, among others, has previously warned about Russia’s growing influence on information Mika Aaltola.
– Now you should be careful. The accounts of the Savushkininkatu trolls and the useful idiots who support them and the lies, smearing and smearing they spread will appear more and more the closer the spring elections get, Kari stated.
He has more than 65,000 followers on Twitter.
Kari reminds that Russian scam accounts often try to emphasize their Finnishness in their own profiles aimed at Finns. Since Finns usually do not have to emphasize that they are from Finland, this is a good indicator of fraudulent accounts.
– After all, they always have some proof of “I’m a real Finn” in their name. In their profile picture, they try to emphasize that they are Finnish. For example, in this case, the profile picture was an army photo, says Kari.
The clothes were revealing
– It was a pure troll, Martti J. Kari, working life professor of security and strategic analysis at the University of Jyväskylä, says about the incident he revealed. Tommi Anttonen / at
In the case he revealed, a person appearing with a very ordinary Finnish man’s name had put a picture on Twitter as his profile picture, in which he appeared in the Finnish army’s now-disused holiday uniform and the insignia of a corporal on the collar plates.
There were many mistakes in the equipment of the person in the picture, which Kari and many other Finns drew attention to. In addition, the Finnish language used in the profile was very lame and full of mistakes.
– He announced that he was born in 1987 and worded it somehow funny, but he said that he was in the army during a time that was not possible due to his age and the equipment used. There was also written tin shirt separately and a t-shirt without a hyphen. The grammar was terrible, Kari lists mistakes.
In the picture, the man also had, among other things, the insignia of a corporal mounted on the collar plates the wrong way round.
– He used some wonderful Russian saying that he had translated into Finnish. However, such does not exist in Finland. Somehow, you can immediately see from the style that this is not authentic, says Kari.
The profile in question came against Kari the writer Sofi Oksaseen in the related discussion.
– They clearly always aim to score something. Now it was Sofi Oksanen, he says.
Not worth sharing
Kari urges those participating in discussions on Twitter and other social media not to share updates from accounts they suspect to be Russian trolls. The basic instruction is that you can first report the account to the service administrator and then consider closing it, i.e. blocking it from your own profile.
– Under no circumstances should you share these updates, says Kari.
You should also take a screenshot of the fake account update. This can be forwarded if you are sure that it is a fake account. Instead, you should skip inciting others against the fake account, i.e. the so-called painting, because this only helps the troller get more attention.
The troll factory operating on Savushkininkatu in St. Petersburg, run by the Russian government, has often been reported in Finland. The task of its hundreds of employees is said to be to participate in various discussions online in a pro-Russian manner and also to annoy other discussants.
The account revealed by Kari and which garnered a lot of attention on Twitter was deleted after a few days. Kari notes that exposed accounts usually disappear quickly. After a while, a profile with a new name may often appear in popular conversations.
He says that in the case of the man who appeared in a conscript’s holiday suit, he tried to get him to react somehow and that he also succeeded.
– It was quite childish. Apparently, there was a slightly bad weekend attendant or several attendants on Savushkininkatu. It was such a bad attempt, Kari assessed.