Sweden's Twitter Account Subjected to Sexist Abuse

Sweden, which became the world's first nation to put its official Twitter account into the hands of its citizens, is currently considering closing the amusement on account of the growing amount of racist and sexist abuse it received in recent months.

Since 2011, randomly chosen Swedes have taken turns managing Sweden's official twitter account, with a different curator taking charge every week. The project is a joint initiative of the Swedish Institute and VisitSweden, which was launched with the intention of creating confidence in Sweden abroad.

In recent months, however, @Sweden, which has over 102,000 followers, has reportedly come under attack from web trolls who assault the curators with racist and sexist abuse.

In late summer, Ellen Haglund was entrusted to manage Sweden's public face. When she tweeted that talking about racism and sexism with one's children is important, it was not long before threats and abuse started pouring in. Unknown people wrote to her that she should be raped and that she should die, Swedish Radio reported. By her own admission, Haglund had to block up to 200 users.

"And they were pure trolls who wrote crazy things. Very much racism and sexism. Also, it seemed well organized," Haglund told Swedish Radio.

Furthermore, many used @Sweden as a platform for arguing against immigration.

SHE'S THE NEXT @sweden NOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/Q8UkEM99Za

— Sp🎃💀ky Dem🎃n👻🍁 (@intdemon) 2 октября 2016 г.

​"In their racist view, it has become as bad in Sweden as it can only get due to immigration. If I tweeted 'Now, my daughter has come home from the playground' I could get several responses that were 'next time you let her out, she will be raped by Muslims,' 'you have to be glad you still can, soon you will have Sharia Law and you will not go out anymore' and so on," Haglund told Swedish Radio.

HELLO NEW OTP pic.twitter.com/8hw7pCmgPb

— @sweden / Jenny (@sweden) 5 октября 2016 г.

​This week's curator is Jenny Nguyen, a Swedish law student who is currently on exchange in Hong Kong. By her own admission, her hobby is "dismantling patriarchy and white supremacy." Throughout the week she has shared the abuse she has received while using the account, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter reported.

People assuming I hate Sweden based on me tweeting some historical facts and here I am neither hating nor loving Sweden pic.twitter.com/Zp0wFBcxYL

— @sweden / Jenny (@sweden) 5 октября 2016 г.

​​According to Henrik Selin, the head of intercultural dialogue at the Swedish Institute, there has been a marked increase in trolls targeting the curators since this summer, which may ultimately lead to the closing down of the account, Swedish news outlet The Local reported. Previously, the agency had repeatedly come under fire for failure to respond to internet hate.

In the wake of the web abuse, marked changes have been made. First, a code of conduct for followers was added to the account's official website. Second, the policy of wiping the slate of blocked accounts was abolished. Therefore, blocked accounts will remain blocked.

In March, one of the "guest-tweeters" at Sweden's official Twitter account raised a storm with a string of crass, gross and heavily sexualized tweets.

The Twitter account @sweden is run under the motto "new Swede every week," and is rotated between different individuals as part of the Curators of Sweden project.

The Swedish Institute is a state-funded organization, whose goal is promoting Sweden and Swedish values globally, and creating interest and confidence in Sweden and supporting Sweden's image abroad.

Claiming Sweden is one of the worlds most equal countries is.. interesting since our asylum regulation is also among the strictest in Europe

— @sweden / Jenny (@sweden) 7 октября 2016 г.​