The Government report ”Främlingsfienden inom oss” (The xenophobe within)

Policy Response DateNovember 9, 2012 Country: Sweden Address: Stockholm General Type: Racist violence, Racist discourse, Discrimination, Institutional discrimination, Equality/Integration Racism and discrimination phenomena: Anti-migrant/xenophobia, Afrophobia
Groups affected / Interested in: Roma & Travelers, Muslims, Ethnic minorities, Religious minorities, Africans/black people, National minorities Key socio-economic/institutional areas: Political discourse -parties - orgs, Anti-discrimination, Anti-racism Hate speech/Racist Discourse Medium: Public Discourse, Political Discourse, Printed Publication, Book

The Government report ”Främlingsfienden inom oss” (The xenophobe within), the Internet is identified as an important channel for xenophobic organisations and individuals to spread their message to the public. The extreme right has skilfully utilised the internet and have even functioned as trend setters of sorts. In the Government report it is stated that there are more than a hundred xenophobic websites in Sweden. Every tenth person under the age of 30 has visited such a site in the past year. Most active are those who are 20 years old or younger. One of the larger news sites, avpixlat.info, had over 200,000 unique visitors per week in June 2012. The largest racist forum in Sweden, nordisk.nu, has over 20,000 registered members. What is appealing to many about the Internet is the chance of expressing opinions anonymously. Never before has it been so easy for persons who harbour xenophobic ideas to get in contact with like-minded people. There are posts on the internet that are in violation of the law, but the Police often have difficulties intervening as the servers are often located in the USA where they enjoy strong protection

The Swedish Government, Främlingsfienden inom oss, SOU 2012:74, 9 november 2012, Arbetsmarknadsdepartementet, available at: http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/108/a/203123