World
@Sweden Twitter campaign marred by 'Jew' comments

QMI AGENCY

An initiative to bring the voices of Swedish citizens to the country's Twitter account gained negative attention this week when the guest poster began tweeting about Jews and Nazis.

"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!?" Sonja Abrahamsson tweeted Tuesday, from Sweden's official Twitter account.

"In nazi German they even had to sew stars on their sleeves. If they didn't, they could never now who was a jew and who was not a jew," she continued.

"Once I asked a co-worker what a jew is. He was 'part jew', whatever that means. He's like 'uuuuh...jews are.. uh.. well educated..?'"

The tweets - from the @Sweden account, which has more than 43,000 followers - generated negative reaction that Abrahamsson hadn't been expecting.

"Im sorry if some of you find the question offensive. Thats was not my purpose. I just don't get why some people hates jews so much," she tweeted.

"I thought it was a good idea to ask the question when so many well educated people all over the world can answer. But no. Bad idea."

The Swedish Institute and VisitSweden launched the Curators of Sweden project, under which a different Swedish citizen takes up the keyboard of the official @Sweden account each week. The first guest tweeter started tweeting on Dec. 10, 2011.

"No one owns the Swedish brand more than the people who live here and with this initiative we are letting their Sweden become visible," Annika Rembe, director-general of the Swedish Institute, said shortly after the project was launched.

The curators take over the uncensored account and, according to a press release issued about the project in January, "have been selected to reflect valuation, competence and interest in several subject matters, everything from HBT-questions to design and innovation."

On Wednesday, Abrahamsson continued to tweet as @Sweden, turning her gaze to the Disney classic The Little Mermaid, TV series Desperate Housewives and Canadian pop star Justin Bieber.

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