Domestic Illegal Influence Operation Run by the Sweden Democrats

On the 12th of September, the day before the Swedish general elections, the Sweden Democrats (SD) sent out a text message to an unknown number of people, claiming that it was sent to people with names not in the Swedish name-day calendar. A name day is a Swedish tradition where specific first names are assigned to each day of the calendar year. A4E has received reports that message were also received by people with names in the calendar. 

Text message sent by the Swedish Democrats. Image edited to not amplify the influence operations message. 

Legal Review

According to all indications we’ve seen, the activity is a clear violation of GDPR (Dataskyddsförordningen), targeting people based on their ethnic or religious background, is assessed by data-protection experts as a likely GDPR violation (lack of legal basis under Art. 6 and unlawful processing of special-category data under Art. 9).

It’s not the first time the Sweden Democrats have violated GDPR. In June 2024, SD did a SMS campaign, calling upon Swedish citizens to vote for them in the European Parliament elections, which the Swedish GDPR regulator (Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten – IMY) ruled was a violation of GDPR.

An influence operation is an organised, deliberate effort to manipulate the beliefs, behaviours, or decisions of a target audience using illegal content, illegal activity, inauthentic behaviour, covert activity, or foreign interference (Nazari & Sarvela 2026, p.11).

Considering the scope of this activity being seemingly illegal, and deliberately trying to manipulate muslim voters, this activity could be labelled as a domestic influence operation run by the Sweden Democrats. 

Recommended Response

All individuals who have received the the text message should report the violation to the relevant authority – IMY. You can do so through this link: 

https://www.imy.se/privatperson/utfora-arenden/lamna-ett-klagomal/ 

Swedish press should not focus on the content of the message, but rather the illegal nature of the event. Writing about the narrative only amplifies it. 

Swedish regulators should publicly and immediately open an investigation into the matter of GDPR violation.