Social Media Experiment Gone Wrong?

image
Published: 13 Jun, 2012
1 min read

What would you tweet if given full control over your country's official Twitter account? In a project called Curators of Sweden, the official Twitter account @Sweden is handed off directly to the country's citizens. Each week, a new Swede is given the opportunity to freely tweet whatever comes to mind.

While the project has been going on for 24 weeks, it made national headlines yesterday when a 27 year old mother of two, Sonja, was publicly ridiculed for her comments on Jewish and gay people. Since then, her tweets have been the talk of the nation, causing many to criticize Sweden's strategy.

The Social Media Manager at Visitsweden defends the project, telling the Wall Street Journal:

“It’s very important for us to let everyone take a unique viewpoint. Every one of our curators is there with a different perspective.” - Tommy Sollén

The Twitter community reacted with outrage, yet the number of people following the account skyrocketed from 34,000 to roughly 46,000 followers.

And censorship is out of the question.

“You cannot look at any specific tweet, you can only judge a curator on the whole week…How else are you going to show the multi-faceted people that Sweden is composed of?”  - Tommy Sollén

Whether or not you agree with the reasoning behind the social media experiment, it's hard to deny that Sonja is doing her part in sharing a very "unique" viewpoint:

The dinner was horrible. It felt like eating your way through a shaved vikings chest, while he's trying to kill you.— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 13, 2012

So, what would you tweet if given full access to the official United States Twitter account?

 

Also, check out the Wall Street Journal and Mashable for some great social media curations of @Sweden's most controversial tweets!

IVP Donate

 

You Might Also Like

Ballrooms, Ballots, and a Three-Way Fight for New York
Ballrooms, Ballots, and a Three-Way Fight for New York
The latest Independent Voter Podcast episode takes listeners through the messy intersections of politics, reform, and public perception. Chad and Cara open with the irony of partisan outrage over trivial issues like a White House ballroom while overlooking the deeper dysfunctions in our democracy. From California to Maine, they unpack how the very words on a ballot can tilt entire elections and how both major parties manipulate language and process to maintain power....
30 Oct, 2025
-
1 min read
California Prop 50 gets an F
Princeton Gerrymandering Project Gives California Prop 50 an 'F'
The special election for California Prop 50 wraps up November 4 and recent polling shows the odds strongly favor its passage. The measure suspends the state’s independent congressional map for a legislative gerrymander that Princeton grades as one of the worst in the nation....
30 Oct, 2025
-
3 min read
bucking party on gerrymandering
5 Politicians Bucking Their Party on Gerrymandering
Across the country, both parties are weighing whether to redraw congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Texas, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Utah, Indiana, Colorado, Illinois, and Virginia are all in various stages of the action. Here are five politicians who have declined to support redistricting efforts promoted by their own parties....
31 Oct, 2025
-
4 min read