The US is spying in Greenland, the Danish government and the people of the world's largest island suspect. What exactly is the US doing in Greenland?
It is hardly a coincidence: the "Wall Street Journal" newspaper has come out with information that the United States wants to step up its intelligence activities in Greenland, and the first ads for a newly created account with a picture of the Greenland flag have already appeared on Facebook. Its name is “Your Voice Matters”. The account currently has 115 followers and 69 likes.
Danish suspicions: US spying via social media
Greenland and Denmark, whose territory is the largest island in the world, fear that US intelligence services have become more active and are carrying out espionage via social media. This impression is also shared by many people in Greenland in recent days, writes the German public broadcaster ZDF.
Recalling Donald Trump's serious claims to Greenland, which he wants to join the US, the publication points out that the aim of the increased activity of the services may be to identify US sympathizers in the region.
The account “Your Voice Matters” has made three paid advertisements in Greenlandic, which are dedicated to Greenland's relations with the US. The posts ask in Greenlandic whether people think Greenland's military cooperation with the US can be improved.
For Signe Ravn-Høygaard, founder and director of the Danish think tank "Digital Infrastructure", the ads are very unusual: "These ads on Facebook, the most popular social network in Greenland, reach the majority of active users of this platform for little money," she told Danish TV2. Although it is not clear who is behind the account in question, according to the expert, this activity should be given serious attention.
The opinion of Greenlanders is important
According to the "Wall Street Journal" The goal of US intelligence activities in Greenland is to find steps towards warming relations with Washington that are acceptable to Greenlanders.
With his actions in recent months, Donald Trump has achieved exactly the opposite: after the parliamentary elections this spring, the parties on the island have tightened their ranks and emphasized that their goal is for Greenland to remain independent and continue its cooperation with Denmark.
"Friends don't spy on each other"
The information about the alleged American espionage has caused many angry reactions. At the summit of the Nordic and Baltic states held in Oslo, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen emphasized that "friends don't spy on each other".
Accordingly, Jennifer Hall Godfrey, acting head of the US embassy in Copenhagen, was summoned to the Danish Foreign Ministry for an explanation, ZDF reported. And to make it abundantly clear that Copenhagen is not willing to talk about Greenland without Greenland, a representative of the island country was also present at the meeting.
In Greenland itself, voices have also emerged from individual parliamentarians calling for the immediate closure of the American consulate on the island. For now, however, this is not a step that the government in Copenhagen wants to take and is instead counting on the support of a number of countries, including Great Britain and the Netherlands.
A new building is currently being built in the capital, Nuuk, to replace the old wooden structure that has represented US interests for years. The new consulate will be significantly larger and will probably also offer enough space for spies, the German ZDF also writes.