Sweden Twitter Experiment Goes Painfully Awry

http://mashable.com/2012/06/12/sweden-twitter/

by Jagat • 14 years ago

108 68 14 years ago

mashable.com

Zirro2• 14 years ago

I'm from Sweden, and I have never heard of this before.

SuperChihuahua2• 14 years ago

You must have missed "hanna widerstedt" :)

Zirro2• 14 years ago

Indeed, it seems that way. The world of bloggers is to me, as we would say in Sweden, ointressant.

smoyer3• 14 years ago

I have known a few Swedes and have owned 4 Saabs and none have them have ever behaved like this. There's always 5% of a population that can make the other 95% hide in embarrassment.

patdennis• 14 years ago

Really? My last Saab was a great car, but showed an odd racial insensitivity sometimes.

smoyer3• 14 years ago

Hmmm ... there was a period when my car seemed to dislike any cars in front of it at red-lights. Once we realized the turbo's waste gate was stuck closed, we sent it to sensitivity training and it's behaved perfectly ever since.

silverlake• 14 years ago

There's a fine line between master troll and dimwitted psycho. Which is she?

smoyer3• 14 years ago

I think she actually fits into a third category ... those who perceive themselves to be Internet personalities.

TomGullen• 14 years ago

My troll-dar isn't as sharp as it used to be as I get older, but it seems quite likely that they've just got a troll on their hands here from reading the Tweets.

Either way, anything like this was a time bomb waiting to go off if there wasn't any vetting process at all.

SuperChihuahua2• 14 years ago

She might be a copy cat of "hanna widerstedt" who got really "famous" in Sweden after saying similar things on YouTube. After that she got featured in several magazines and in Big Brothers as well and got her 5 seconds of fame!

mc32• 14 years ago

That's just bizarre --off the rails. It's not as if she has the excuse of being an actor and could blame this whole episode on being high or coming down hard off of something.

Pity the kids. What a mom.

mef• 14 years ago

Wouldn't this mean the experiment has been a success? The experiment is "... based around the idea that no single voice can represent the country, so a slew of guest Swedish curators will do the best job to portray the national character."

Take a cross section of any society and you're going to get people of all kinds, including people like Sonja.

sheraz2• 14 years ago

Professional trolls are not part of any society

gaius• 14 years ago

Meanwhile in Norway http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1740707/

ktizo2• 14 years ago

Apart from the really good ones, who we put on tv.

btilly• 14 years ago

I suggest listening to talk radio for a bit. There are more than a few professional trolls out there.

ticks2• 14 years ago

The Mashable writer might just be a bit sensitive, I like the Sweden account (and follow other similar ones). Users seem to be free to talk about all sorts of sensitive topics without problem. To me, this week is just an off-week, where I am less interested in the person but will be sticking with it.

niho• 14 years ago

I'm swedish and this is really not that strange. She's just an ordinary Stockholm hipster with an odd sense of humor. We got a bunch of those here. We've sort of had a tradition of that kind of very politically incorrect and absurdist humor here at least since the mid 90s. I would even go as far as to say that it is considered a bit chick in some circles to behave like that.

But I can see how an american/international audience wouldn't get the joke.

roguecoder• 14 years ago

Yeah, that's totally it. We don't ever have any ironic-but-also-super-racist racism over here.

Peer• 14 years ago

Show me the super racist racism, please.

sheraz2• 14 years ago

I wrote to the curatorsof sweden and suggest they follow up with Aron Flam. I think it would be appropriate (and actually funny)

effn2• 14 years ago

I second this.

sequoia• 14 years ago

http://meloukhia.net/2009/07/hipster_racism.html

> Hipster racism involves making derogatory comments with a racial basis in an attempt to seem witty and above it all. Specifically, the idea is to sound ironic, as in “I’m allowed to say this because of course I’m not racist, so it’s funny.” It’s an aspect of a larger part of the hipster culture, which wants to seem jaded and urbane and oh-so-witty. Using language which is viewed as inflammatory or not appropriate is supposed to push the boundaries and make someone look edgy, but it only really comes across that way to people who buy into that system. To everyone else, it’s just racist.

So no, this isn't some unheard of Swedish phenomenon, it's "hipster racism," as described above. And god help us if you are going to tell me that Swedes just aren't racist like Americans.

donall• 14 years ago

The linked blog post is a bit of a rant. Sounds like the author really hates hipsters and just wishes to accuse them of being racist without actually providing any substantial evidence to back the claim. If "hipster racism" is a legitimate phenomenon, I'd like to read about it from another source.

On the main point, the Swedish troll isn't really saying anything overtly racist. She is just mentioning a number of things that make people feel uncomfortable and making some questionable remarks that are obviously designed to be incendiary. I'm not sure this fits into the "hipster racism" model, as described in the linked blog.

bitwize• 14 years ago

Oh, we have it here too. It's called Family Guy.

gojomo• 14 years ago

If the Swedish version of The Family Guy has an evil talking baby named Sonja the circle will be complete.

apdinin• 14 years ago

Seems Sonja did a good job. We're talking about Sweden, right? How often does that topic come up in daily conversation for non-Swedish people?

huma• 14 years ago

I don't see what's the big fuss here. Maybe a few edgy comments, but nothing "painfully awry". I would say kudos to the organizers for their trust in their fellow citizens to speak out freely without censorship.

Btw, her profile [1] on the project's page is up and straight about her agenda (and her character, as well): "I’m gonna tweet about my thoughts and being me, about having children and living my life and what not."

There may be a day when we become so politically-correct about everything that we can't speak out minds anymore.

[1] http://curatorsofsweden.com/

sciurus2• 14 years ago

You don't think the string of tweets starting with

"Whats the fuzz with jews. You can't even see if a person is a jew, unless you see their penises, and even if you do, you can't be sure!?"

is "painfully awry" for a twitter account intended to promote tourism to Sweden? What about the tweet about the "hungry gay with aids"?

I doubt those encourage anyone who's jewish or homosexual to visit Sweden.

rorrr• 14 years ago

> twitter account intended to promote tourism to Sweden?

Isn't it just some personal twitter account?

ticks2• 14 years ago

I guess that's why it's an experiment. Tourist boards are driven by marketing and PR types. It's refreshingly transparent to hear from - apparently - real people... you see the country from their viewpoint.

effn2• 14 years ago

What's "painfully awry" about thinking jews are no different from other people apart from the circumcision thing?

Semaphor• 14 years ago

I think she did awesome, even I fell for it.

First she says that jews are just like other people. Woah! That's some weird thinking!

She photoshops Freddy Mercury (who was gay and had aids) into a picture with food calling it "hungry gay with aids" which you might call vulgar maybe (just as the urine picture caption) but how is it wrong?

She keeps doing a few more bad jokes.

I think if she wanted to troll she did a really great job! People are up in arms about a few harmless comments and pictures, I definitely do applaud her:)

Tichy2• 14 years ago

My interpretation is that she says jews are normal people. Is that really offensive? Why? Because she mentions that a fraction of jews have a penis?

smsm422• 14 years ago

Those won't encourage or discourage any jewish people to visit Sweden. Because jewish people, like pretty much any other people, mostly not idiots and understand that stupid trolling by one person doesn't mean anything and does not reflect on the whole country. It is mildly annoying to read this, it is even more annoying to understand "omg, I just spent 10 minutes of my time on this crap", but that's it.

mycodebreaks• 14 years ago

The guy is definitely getting questioned by authorities at an airport if he comes to the USA.

unkoman• 14 years ago

I see nothing wrong with this.

S_A_P2• 14 years ago

Seems to me that she has been given a platform to stir the pot and has taken the opportunity to do so. This seems like trolling to me, plain and simple. Use strong words/imagery that incite emotion and blind the reader from noticing that she isn't really saying anything that bad. That said, I'm sure the Swedish tourist board wasn't quite expecting this...

superjared• 14 years ago

You didn't think calling a photoshopped picture of Freddie Mercury "hungry gay with aids" that bad?

S_A_P2• 14 years ago

I think its crass, tasteless, offensive and annoying. However, with the troll filter on, I cant really get that upset about it...

roc• 14 years ago

In the grand scheme of internet trolling? It barely registers.

ktizo2• 14 years ago

Is either stupidity, insanity, tasteless and surrealistic trolling, or brilliant satire. And I've got no idea which at this point.

berntb• 14 years ago

Sweden is certainly one of the most politically correct countries around; there is just one "good" way of thinking.

In short, just another stupid moral panic in Sweden. Nothing to see here, move along.

theorique• 14 years ago

By 4chan standards, it's positively noble.

Of course, anything starting with "by 4chan standards" has got to be pretty depraved already.

coldstar• 14 years ago

No, as a swede i dont this this is that bad, I believe that gay people has the same rights as all other humans and I believe this is a common swedish mindset. Sweden is a highly secularized and liberal country in the subjects of gay and religion. These comments on jews and gays are just inflammatory and made to make page views. As outsiders that have a more sensitive view on gay and religion these views may be offensive. but to many swedes these comments are recognized as attention craving and irrelevant.

duaneb• 14 years ago

For traditional media, it's horrendous. For what comes out of the internet on a daily basis, it's banal.

Tichy2• 14 years ago

What exactly is bad about it? It seems as if it should be bad, but if you think about it, why?

kalmsy• 14 years ago

It was pretty funny? I laughed. Might be a scandinavian thing.

smsm422• 14 years ago

But it's not like we don't know what happens when you give a public forum accessible to anybody. And the Swedish tourist board must have known it too. The appearance of trolls is inevitable, the question is only when. I'm sure right now thousands of people over the world are thinking "this is trolling? If only somebody would get an access to this to me, I'd troll the hell out of it! People would talk about it for years after!". That's just how it is, you can't expect 100% of people to be mature, civilized and well-behaved.

peterwwillis3• 14 years ago

I think this is the funniest thing i've ever seen. Troll or not, this is hilarious

Synaesthesia• 14 years ago

Yeah! She's still tweeting some hilarious stuff on that account.

f055• 14 years ago

Cant blame Americans for being uptight. You'd never understand Sweden's freedom of speech :P

sparknlaunch• 14 years ago

These are so good they cannot be real (humourous).They read like a Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G, Borat) film script. Here I thought the Swedes were the more intelligent inhabitants. Sonja has proved us right/wrong? Can't wait to see this new meme go viral.

javajosh2• 14 years ago

Can't emphasize enough: it is remarkable for Sweden to hand real power over to individual citizens. Totally wonderful. While she is acting like a git, she is also not the polished PR machine that most countries feel the need to use to present themselves. Humor or not, her words are real.

I really, really applaud Sweden and would love to see something similar in the States. I have no doubt that the USA version would put the spotlight on some really horrible sentiments - but again, that is what is real. It's just like Borat, highlighting whitewashed racism that is ever-present in the US. In the end, it's a very good thing to just be honest.

siculars• 14 years ago

Dunno bout you but a twitter account does not quite scream "real power" to me.

javajosh2• 14 years ago

Haha, no, but it's a start.

adrianb• 14 years ago

The NY Times article was written in TROLLHATTAN. I thought that's a joke too. It seems it's a real city.

yesbabyyes• 14 years ago

As a Swede, I might be biased -- but given that Stephen Colbert has asked to be an "Artificial Swedener"[1][2], I'd say it's a roaring success!

[1] https://twitter.com/StephenAtHome/status/212753977018810368 [2] http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/41519...

Sweden Twitter Experiment Goes Painfully Awry

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