Jan Axelsson, founder of the online forum Flashback, has been charged with violating the law on liability for electronic bulletin boards – for failing to delete twelve posts that allegedly constitute the criminal offence of incitement to racial hatred. He himself denies any wrongdoing.
“Jan Axelsson has, through gross negligence, failed to remove messages that appear to contain incitement against ethnic groups from the site flashback.org, for which he is the provider. This happened on twelve occasions during the period from October 30, 2022 to February 28, 2023 at an unknown location”, prosecutor Lucas Eriksson said in the summons filed with the Stockholm District Court.
The comments Axelsson is accused of making refer to various immigrant groups and describe them in a crude, hostile or derisive manner – but Axelsson and his lawyer, Nils Hillert, say it is highly questionable whether some of them are punishable at all. The lawyer also points out that his client did not commit a crime and deleted the posts when he was made aware of them – in accordance with the law.
“Jan Axelsson first questions whether all the posts in question can objectively be considered incitement to racial hatred”, the lawyer writes in a reminder, pointing to previous rulings that “criminalization should not constitute an obstacle to freedom of expression or a threat to the free formation of opinion” and that “statements that are best responded to or corrected through free and open debate should not be covered by the legislation”.
The earlier ruling also stated that the law on incitement to hatred “must be interpreted restrictively” and that “fundamental rights and freedoms must be taken into account” and that it “must not go so far as to constitute a threat to the freedom of expression” – especially in political matters.
“Complete misinformation”
“In light of the current legal situation, far from all of the posts complained of could be considered blatant incitement to racial hatred”, the lawyer adds, pointing out that there is a system in place whereby users can report posts deemed to violate the law to the forum’s moderators, who then decide whether they should be deleted.
“The current posts have never been reported to Jan Axelsson or the moderators. The complainant, for unclear reasons, chose to file a police report instead of reporting the posts to Flashback. The report was also accompanied by a lot of information about Flashback, the forum, Jan Axelsson and his relatives, which is directly false”, it continues.
The law on liability for electronic bulletin boards (Lagen om ansvar för elektroniska anslagstavlor) was introduced in 1998 and means that those who provide, for example, a forum or a comment box are obliged to delete or otherwise prevent the spread of criminal messages – such as incitement to racial hatred, sedition, copyright infringement, child pornography or illegal depictions of violence.
If convicted, Axelsson faces a fine or a maximum of six months in prison. If the offense is considered serious, he could instead face two years in prison.
