Report: Mapping foreign influence on social media before, during, and after the Norwegian municipal council and county elections 2023

This groundbreaking report made on behalf of the Ministry of Local Government explores foreign influence on Norwegians through social media during elections in the period 2023–2025. As the first of three reports, the primary focus here is on foreign influence before, during or immediately after the local elections in 2023.

Utilizing the 'Five Pillars' framework, the study focuses on Russian and Chinese influence networks. The report strategically examines data from Facebook, X/Twitter, Telegram, and TikTok. The main conclusion is that there are no substantial signs of foreign information manipulation during the Norwegian local election. The foundation for this conclusion is based on four different analyses pointing at 1) limited focus on Norway in the period of the election from both Russian and Chinese actors, 2) limited impact from shared links through authentic Norwegian profiles, 3) minimal evidence of coordinated, inauthentic influence and 4) there is no evidence that foreign actors tried to sow doubt about the validity of the elections. However, the foreign influence networks exhibit an opportunistic behavior, so while Norway is of limited interest, all opportunities to escalate internal conflicts are explored.

Please note that the report is in Norwegian.