Truth as a Weapon | VPRO Documentary

How do you successfully fight disinformation and lies? Two years ago, we filmed in Lithuania how so-called "Elves" fight against Russian trolls. With the war in Ukraine, the fight against disinformation becomes even more fierce.

In the current war between Russia and Ukraine, accurate information is vital. But the Russians seem to be masters at strategically deploying disinformation. Constantly, Russian trolls are producing whole and half falsehoods, and fake news that appears on social media and news sites. Their goal: to sow confusion, play off populations and put alliances under strain.

In the Baltic States, they are used to this information war. They have been bombarded with disinformation from Russia for years. Lithuania is at the forefront of the fight against disinformation: their army has a control room that monitors the media 24 hours a day for fake news. In addition, the country is rich in a volunteer army of troll fighters: the online Elves, who cooperate with the fake news hunters of DebunkEU.org.

Directed by Mea Dols de Jong
Production: Zoë de Wilde
Camera: Jean Counet
Sound by Benny Jansen
Research