Our mission over the past decade has been to support fact-based public debate. Facts are essential to preserving a secure democracy, especially in the digital age.

Could you present the work of your NGO Faktabaari in the field of media education and the fight against misinformation?

Faktabaari provides fact-checking and digital literacy services. We started out ten years ago focusing on verifying political claims, assessing their sources and accuracy. We soon realized that teaching fact-checking was even more important. We therefore developed our actions from a media education perspective, while taking into account the changing digital information landscape.

We offer two main services: Faktabaari PRO, focused on fact-checking and journalism training, and Faktabaari EDU, which provides educational resources for intermediaries such as teachers. These educators, acting as multipliers, use our materials - such as textbooks aimed at younger audiences - to encourage debate on topics such as AI and social networking in the classroom. Our aim is to strengthen existing institutions to catalyze media literacy efforts by adding new elements.

We focus on the needs of digital natives, who are often not well equipped to navigate today's complex information landscape. Young people are frequently exposed to unreliable sources, particularly via social networks, or to no sources at all in the case of generative AI! That's why we're currently focusing on providing Finnish schools with resources on generative AI and social networks, to spark classroom debate. For example, in our "Faktabaari FactHacker" video series, teenagers are encouraged to critically explore the information space by asking themselves three key questions: Who made this claim? What evidence supports it? What do other sources say? However, it's still largely up to teachers to take these discussions into their classrooms.

Trust in institutions and the media has always been a pillar of Finnish society. What about today?

Trust in institutions remains high in Finland, as in the other Nordic countries - our country still ranks among the top five in Europe on all relevant indicators. This trust also extends to institutions such as science and the police. However, maintaining this trust is becoming increasingly difficult as the communications landscape rapidly evolves, particularly with the rise of social networks and artificial intelligence.

A major challenge lies in the fact that social networks continue to transform our global information space, while AI companies challenge traditional, trusted journalism. It's hard to keep up, but we're determined to provide resources based on reliable sources. In the Nordic countries, public broadcasters also play a balancing role in helping to maintain trust in an often over-commercialized information space, but these public broadcasters are under pressure from commercial media and political forces seeking to politicize informational debate. There is also growing polarization, particularly around identity-related themes such as migration. These topics can easily be instrumentalized in digital channels by domestic and foreign actors, including Russia. Finland recently joined NATO, and Finns feel a strong empathy for the defense of Ukraine.

Our mission over the past decade has been to support fact-based public debate. Facts are essential to preserving a secure democracy, especially in the digital age.

How important is the fight against false information when the truth of the facts is increasingly called into question?

Our mission over the past decade has been to support fact-based public debate. Facts are essential to preserving a secure democracy, especially in the digital age. However, the narrative around the facts is just as important. That's why we focus on accountability, sourcing and transparency, especially as generative AI becomes more widespread. In this context, it's also crucial to know what data these AI models are based on, and whether they're based on reliable sources. We have our doubts, but nobody knows for sure yet.

While fact-checking is essential, it only buys time. We also need to address the information ecosystem as a whole, including the algorithms that fuel misinformation and the motivations of social networking companies. Our aim is to help people understand what's at stake in the modern information economy, which is dominated by marketing, particularly in sensitive political contexts, and to encourage them to critically evaluate the information they consume.

In collaboration with our Franco-Finnish partner CheckFirst, we have also led a public initiative called *Digital Election Watch*, which focuses on observing recommendation systems during elections, with the possibility of detecting ethically dubious or manipulative online campaigns and biases. Our aim is to show people what they're exposed to on social networks, and help them move from passive consumers of information to informed citizens. Our slogan is simple: "Stop. Think. Check." It's about encouraging people to take care of their thinking, nurture their curiosity and seek out reliable sources before drawing conclusions or sinking into conspiracy theories. This also requires limiting the time spent on addictive social networks.

Democracies need both fact-based public debate and shared reality.

In your opinion, are the media ready to adapt to changing practices within societies and informational threats?

Many Nordic media are implementing great initiatives to involve young people, but more innovation and large-scale cooperation are needed. Our main challenge is to find ways of attracting young audiences and getting them to engage with reliable sources of information, while nurturing their curiosity. Today's social networks often encourage a passivity that favors manipulation. Possible solutions include offering young people affordable subscriptions to responsible journalistic media, as a complement to public broadcasters. We could also involve them in the information process, to help them understand how much work quality journalism requires. This is an ongoing debate, particularly with commercial media that rely heavily on tracking cookies and often focus on what sells.

However, it seems to me that journalistic media must take responsibility for educating their future audiences about the importance of their work. They must be the most literate players in society when it comes to information. If they simply imitate the social networking companies, they will lose out in the end. Instead, they should focus on transparency and accountability, especially in the face of generative AI, which makes it harder to discern truth from falsehood. There is an urgent need to raise awareness of how AI models are trained, and to report content produced by these models. Fortunately, the European Union has begun to regulate these technologies to manage systemic risks, but it is also necessary to implement these legislations. Ultimately, we need to hold technology companies and those who use these tools for malicious purposes accountable, and encourage improvements in transparency, authenticity and accuracy in the digital space. Democracies need both fact-based public debate and shared reality.