Ylilauta comments on his role in Sanna Marini’s party commotion

An internet discussion board called Ylilauta has emerged in connection with a party related to Prime Minister Sanna Marini (sd). The actions of the users of the discussion board have allegedly succeeded in influencing the extent of the uproar and even the media’s reporting decisions.

Iltalehti contacted Ylilauda’s co-owner, who refused an interview. Iltalehti’s questions are answered by an entity representing Ylilauta, whose identity has not been verified. The answers were given from the email address under Ylilauta.

The board does not directly evaluate the site’s role as an accelerator of Marini’s party.

– It’s difficult to analyze precisely, but Ylilauta is the best place to discuss all kinds of uproar precisely because of the anonymity and the large number of users, they answer by email.

– A large number of users has power, but it is impossible to organize it.

The board replies that “raids” like the #jauhojengi subject tag manipulation, i.e. condensed coordinated mass mailings, are very rare.

– Very rarely does a large group of users get interested in someone’s idea of ​​spamming something, Ylilauda answers.

It is reported from the board that the successful “raids” from the site have been “mainly the manipulation of Spotify’s top lists Kari Tapio and donations of goods and money to well-known persons or entities, such as the donation of 30,000 euros collected for Hurst”.

– As far as I can see, those mentioned messages were just the ideas of individual users. You see similar companies on different topics almost every day, and practically all of them fail when others are not interested.

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Widespread commotion

The uproar started last week when videos of the prime minister partying were leaked from a private user account. While discussing the video and sharing it, Ylilauta users filled social media platforms with the hashtag #jauhojengi, which was also used by others through mass mailing. Through this, mass mailing has allegedly affected the interest of the topic in the eyes of the public and even the decisions of journalistic media when reporting on the matter. The subject tag Jauhojengi referred to speculation about whether someone in the video is shouting the word “jauhojengi”, possibly referring to drug use.

The videos were reported and some of them were also published in journalistic media, including Iltalehti. In the end, Prime Minister Marin denied that he had ever used drugs, and said that he would also take a drug test.

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On Tuesday of this week, a photo from Ylilauda spread widely from social media, in which two guests of the Prime Minister pose in Kesäranta in front of the Government Council’s official photo wall. The people in the picture are holding a Finland sign over their breasts. In addition to the photograph, Ylilauda published video material estimated to have been filmed in Kesäranta, which Ylilauda’s discussants had dug up from the social media accounts of the celebrities appearing in the videos.

The topic sparked a discussion, among other things, about whether it is appropriate to take photos in which people pose half-naked in Kesäranta. Both Prime Minister Marin and the social media influencer and model who appeared in the photo Sabina Särkkä apologized for publishing the photo. As with the videos before, the picture was eventually reported and published in the journalistic media.

Why Ylilauta?

Why are most of Marin’s rant videos shared on Ylilauda?

– Thanks to Ylilauta’s way of working, messages are visible to a really large audience immediately after they are sent. Ylilauta are the only places where you can do it anonymously. Few people would want their name on the side like that, they say via email.

The board says that the moderation of the site is done in the same way as, for example, on Facebook.

– We don’t check anything in advance. Users can report messages. Reports are quickly checked, illegal or illegal messages are deleted and the user is banned.

According to Ylilauta, the site does not have a system for fact-checking, and the users understand it.

– Most of them know how not to believe everything they read and know how to check their authenticity themselves, they answer by email.

– In our opinion, this is a more functional system than an automated system in the longer term, also from the point of view of society as a whole.

What kind of people practice this?

– Such cases appear to be of interest to many, if it is a well-known person. To the question “what kind of people practice this” I can only answer that Finns, from Ylilauda.

– Why? Probably, because this is a bit different from ordinary everyday life, which interests them as well.

In addition, the executive board replies that screwing things up is in itself no different from what big companies like Meta or Google do.

Influence?

Claims have been made in the public that the Ylilauta functioned as a platform for Russian or extreme right-wing information influence.

On the board, claims are not considered probable.

– Clear influence of information will be removed, but you can see very little of it, so I do not consider the claims presented to be likely, the message will be answered.

– Most of the messages claimed to be “information influence” are jokes or someone’s individual opinion and so on. And when someone gets nervous about Russian or extreme right-wing sentiments, it only starts to be pushed in that direction more.