The law means that the police will be able to demand that films and images with illegal content, such as recruitment material aimed at young people, be taken down from social media such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat within one hour. Otherwise, the platforms face fines ranging from 5,000 to 5 million kronor.
“Urgent problem”
Gunnar Strömmer says that he has received criticism from the Left Party, the Green Party and the Center Party that the government is "doing too much too quickly", and that he has had to answer questions in the Constitutional Committee about preparations and whether they are "moving forward too quickly".
"I still hope and believe that the parties will see that we are talking about a very acute problem here - namely the recruitment of children into gangs. We see that this recruitment has largely moved from the schoolyard and football field to mobile phones," says Strömmer.
The law, which is the first of its kind in the EU, was supposed to come into effect on Sept. 1 of this year. But on April 2 the government submitted a notification to the European Commission with the hope of a fast-track for earlier implementation. And according to Strömmer, due to the situation in Sweden with gang-related violence and recruitment of children, the request is now getting the green light.
Work quickly
The bill will next be reviewed by the Legislative Council and then it will end up on the Riksdag's table. The hope is to get it through the Riksdag "before the summer recess," Strömmer says, without giving further details.
"If the Riksdag is prepared to work very urgently and the parties are prepared to cooperate with us on this, we see good opportunities to get this in place earlier than we have previously announced," he says.
