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'Accused Instagram girl is innocent, it was me'

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
'Accused Instagram girl is innocent, it was me'

The 17-year-old girl questioned by police in connection to the Gothenburg Instagram 'slut shaming' riot is innocent, says another Instagram user who claims to be behind the account that sparked such uproar on Tuesday.

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The tabloid Aftonbladet managed to get in touch with the teenager on the messaging site Kik. The teen then gave the paper the password to the original Instagram account to verify his or her identity.

"I have thought about going to the police several times," said the teen, who claimed to be between 15 and 18 years of age.

"But it would be like committing suicide, I'll be killed. I'm not afraid of the police, I'm afraid of other people."

The teen claims to have started the account which called for images and information on 'sluts in Gothenburg' for fun and was taken by surprise by the shockwaves it set off.

The account owner said that the 17-year-old girl who was whisked away to safety by her teachers when she was accused of setting up the Instagram account is completely innocent.

"I feel really sorry for her and her family. They don't deserve this," the teen told Aftonbladet.

More than 150 teens gathered outside the accused 17-year-old's school on Tuesday, reportely after calls on a Facebook page to beat her up in retaliation.

The part lynch mob, part voyeuristic tag-along gathering descended into violence as a few members of the crowd threw bottles and stones at the police.

Tuesday's events led to the police apprehending 27 people, while unrest spilling into Wednesday saw one person arrested.

On Thursday afternoon, the Swedish youth organization "Refuse to be called a whore" assembled a peaceful protest of about 100 people in Gothenburg.

They demonstrated against the raw, sexual tone of bullying on the internet.

"We thought it was time for a constructive demonstration instead of hunting down social media users who have spread ugly and disgusting rumours," protester Dana, 28, told the TT news agency.

"Net bullying has escalated and reached the streets. We could have prevented this in Gothenburg but we adults didn't act soon enough."

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