Sweden’s government has been given a direct hotline to Facebook to remove “unreasonable things” and “problematic campaigns”, news outlet Samhällsnytt reports, and this is just in time to silence their opponents in the upcoming elections.
“The call has been made”. Infrastructure Minister Peter Eriksson MP has described the cooperation between Facebook and the government to delete unwanted content in a candid interview.
The politician commends the willing cooperation of the social media company. At the same time, more and more of the opposition are leaving social media.
Yesterday in a feature in Studio One on Sweden’s Radio P1, the Minister shared the results of the government’s pressure on Facebook and other digital giants. He stated that the Swedish election is “threatened” and Facebook “kept their promise” to the government.
Facebook has promised the government a direct hotline. Both direct contact with MSB but also directly to the political party secretaries so they can alert them when they see something they feel is problematic. He stated that they’ve already made contact and that it seems to work.
He also said he has attempted the same with Google and some others in the quest to have the state and politics regulate social media to a certain extent, and to remove things they deem unreasonable.
Social media companies have come under criticism for political censorship and just last week the Swedish Democrats, the political opponent to the current Swedish government, had a documentary about the Nazi and racist roots of the Social Democrats removed.
Shortly after publication on YouTube, the film was removed. It was, however, reinstated after extensive protests.
Mr. Eriksson was not asked if the documentary had been labelled a “problematic campaign” and if YouTube was “called” regarding the film.