Sweden to ‘Protect Free Speech’ by Blocking 14000 People on Twitter – Heat Street

Update: The Swedish Institute has agreed to remove their block list for the @Sweden account and apologized to those mistakenly blocked.

Included in the block list wasHeat Streetwriter Ian Miles Cheong (who, to be fair, is kind of an asshole) and YouTubers Pewdiepie and JonTron.Others blocked on the account were actualSwedish citizens, who claimed on Twitter they were blocked for their views against Swedens immigration policies.

Wow, so brave.

Sweden is standing up for the principle of free speech, the only way they know how: by cowering in fear of opposingopinions on social media.

The Swedish Institute, the section of government responsible for promoting Sweden around the world, will undergo an aggressive blocking campaign for their Twitter account @Swedenin order to promote free speech. They have instituted a block list thatalready includes 12,000international and Swedish accounts dedicated to the drive, threat, hatred and incitement against migrants, women and LGBT people, but also against organizations involved in human rights. The other 2,000 accounts blocked are spam and porn bots.

The @Sweden accountis run by a random Swede each week. These curators are allowed to share their opinions and talk about Sweden through the official account. This weeks curator is Tobias, and he says boring shit about hockey, but apparently some of these civilians get harassed.

We have seen that Internet hate primarily affects women, minorities and those who express strong opinions, says Jenny Ljung, Head of Communications at Swedish Institute in a press release. If a curator represents all three variables, we know that it will be a tough week on @ Sweden account.

So uh, yeah.If up is down, and freedom is slavery, and free speech means blocking people on Twitter, then Sweden is clearly a shining standard we should all strive to live up to.

Yay for post-modern democratic socialism!

Follow me on Twitter @William__Hicks

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Sweden to 'Protect Free Speech' by Blocking 14000 People on Twitter - Heat Street