To make it more difficult for gangs to recruit children and young people on social media, the government is presenting a legislative proposal that gives the police the power to demand that ads be removed within one hour.
Failure to do so will result in a fine of between 5,000 and 5 million kronor.
We will now be the first with such legislation in the EU, says Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer at a press conference.
Initially, the goal was to have a new law in place by September 1. But since the EU recently gave the go-ahead for Sweden to present these rules, the government is rushing the law, which is scheduled to be introduced on July 15.
"Tardy"
The Social Democrats have criticized the government for being late to the game, as summer is an especially high-risk period for recruiting children on summer vacation.
"I welcome the ban on gang-murder ads, but regret that it has taken three years. The government is repeatedly late in taking measures to stop new recruitment," says Teresa Carvalho, legal policy spokesperson for S, in a written comment.
In recent years, Gunnar Strömmer has had meetings with social media companies such as Meta and TikTok about the problem. According to Strömmer, the talks have led to better cooperation between the platforms and the police.
According to Strömmer, the fact that legislation is still required is not an expression of distrust towards the companies.
But it is an expression of the seriousness of the situation, he says.
According to the Liberal Party's legal policy spokesperson Martin Melin, an example of material that the police can require companies to remove under the new law is so-called death lists, where murder missions are advertised.
The platform that receives an injunction must remove this recruitment ad as soon as possible and no later than within an hour, he says.
Missing encrypted apps
However, the new law does not affect encrypted apps.
Once they have hooked the children, communication is usually moved to encrypted apps, and it is a big problem that the police do not have access to that information, says Strömmer.
However, with the new law, the flow there will decrease, he believes.
This is the gateway to recruitment, and it is very valuable to gain access to it, because then we strangle the in-person part of recruitment.
