Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it's learned may be crucial to Western democracy

At Espoo Adult Education Centre, Jussi Toivanen's PowerPoint slide “Have you been hit by the Russian troll army?” included methods to deceive: image and video manipulations, half-truths, intimidation and false profiles, and how to identify bots: look for stock photos, assess the volume of posts per day, check for inconsistent translations and no personal information, ending with “deepfake” — highly realistic manipulated video or audio — of Barack Obama to highlight challenges in the information war ahead. The course is part of an anti-fake news initiative launched by Finland’s government in 2014, two years before Russia meddled in the US elections.