Quick Facts
Biography
Jessikka Aro is a Finnish journalist working for Finland's public service broadcaster Yle. In September 2014 she started investigating pro-Russian Internet trolls. The series of articles led to her receiving Bonnier's Award for Journalism in March 2016.
Her investigation encountered a major backlash from the pro-Russian trolls. She describes responses as including a phone call with the sound of a pistol firing in the other end, as well as a cell phone text message purporting to be from her father (who had died 20 years earlier). Another particularly vocal critic was Johan Bäckman.
She has also written articles about the role of Internet trolls in modern information warfare, and is currently working on a book about the phenomenon. She has published an article in the journal of the centre-right European Peoples Party describing the "brutal" harassment that she attributes to Russian people, which includes the revelation by "fake sites" and "Twitter trolls" of her drug convictions. During the summer of 2016, she raised more than 30,000 USD through the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo.