@Sweden Twitter experiment sparks controversy
(CBS News) Curators of Sweden has a simple premise: Every week, a new Swedish citizen takes charge of the official tourism Twitter account of Sweden and becomes a "curator" who represent a sample of the country's population.
"Every week, someone in Sweden is @Sweden: sole ruler of the world's most democratic Twitter account," Curators of Sweden said on its website.
The idea is that the project would give its citizens an uncensored platform to represent the diverse population that makes up the Northern European country.
Started by Sweden's tourism agency, the project organizers could not have known how far one curator would push the envelope. A 27-year-old woman named Sonja Abrahamsson, who claims she is from a small town called Latikberg, began drawing ire after a series of racially charged tweets.
Abrahamsson began tweeting inappropriate quips about the private parts of Jewish men. To emphasize her point, Abrahamsson went on to make a joke about Nazi concentration camp badges.
Abrahamsson apologized for her offensive remarks, but defended her position, claiming her comments were an innocent mistake.
"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,"[sic] @Sweden 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."
Before tweeting about Jewish people, Abrahamsson made a disparaging remarks about gays and starving children in Africa. She made no attempts to apologize for her inappropriate jokes.
According to the New York Times, the director of the ad agency that developed the Curators of Sweden initiative did not have a comment on Abrahamsson's tweets.
In later tweets, when scolded via Twitter for using poor wording for getting her point - whatever it is - across, Abrahamsson responded with, "[W]hat words were wrong?"
