Israel’s state media reported that the Swedish government’s Twitter Account has blocked thousands of accounts including those of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Ambassador to Sweden, Isaac Bachman. The list included some 12,000 accounts which the report claimed, “the Swedish government defined as being of a racist, neo-Nazi or homophobic nature.” Israel’s Ambassador to Sweden protested against the decision, saying that no one could convince him that an attempt to block Israel and its ambassador was a sane action, particularly given the human rights violations of countries that had not been blocked, including Iran.
That said, following a TV7 investigation into the matter, it was revealed that the Twitter account was not of the Swedish government, but that of “the Swedish Institute”, which is “a public agency that aims to promote interest and confidence in Sweden around the world,” and according to the Press secretary to Sweden’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, “the Swedish Institute is a separate entity from the government.” A Swedish diplomatic source explained to TV7 that the Swedish Institute provides Swedes, all of whom are private individuals, the opportunity to operate the Institutes’ twitter account for one day, to “individually represent the country from their perspective.” Thus, when a computer engineer got his turn to represent Sweden, he blocked the 12,000 accounts on his own accord, a move that was later reversed by the institute.