Defamation charges for Instagram 'slut-shaming'
Two Swedish teenage girls were officially charged with defamation on Tuesday for their involvement in the "slut-shaming" Instagram account that saw enraged teens in Gothenburg lay siege to two high schools last year.
The 15-year-old has admitted she set up the account on the picture-sharing website Instagram, where she encouraged other users to publish photographs of "sluts" with claims of their sexual activities.
The girl claimed she clicked "OK" on most of the posts, more or less in panic, reported the local newspaper Göteborgs-Posten (GP). As a result, the pictures and comments could be viewed by any Instagram user.
Many of the claims were vulgar and detailed.
When the contributors' promised anonymity was later breached, teens assembled in a crowd to bring to justice another teen who was falsely accused of setting up the Instagram account. But when the mob reached the Plusgymnasiet high schoool, the police had already taken her to safety. Vandalism ensued.
SEE ALSO: Images from the scene of the Gothenburg Instagram riots
Minor rioting spilled into a second day, targeting another high school, Framtidsgymnasiet.
The trial is expected to start on June 3rd. They girls are accused of slandering 46 people in total.
While police initially received more than one hundred slander reports, prosecutor Annika Boman has focused on 46 cases where the evidence was strong.
"Its the cases where there were screengrabs, an image of the insults," she told the TT news agency.
The 16-year-old who has denied the charges made against her has been linked to the incidents partly through the 15-year-old's testimony and partly through SMS traffic indicating that she at the least knew about the Instagram account.
TT/The Local/at
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The 15-year-old has admitted she set up the account on the picture-sharing website Instagram, where she encouraged other users to publish photographs of "sluts" with claims of their sexual activities.
The girl claimed she clicked "OK" on most of the posts, more or less in panic, reported the local newspaper Göteborgs-Posten (GP). As a result, the pictures and comments could be viewed by any Instagram user.
Many of the claims were vulgar and detailed.
When the contributors' promised anonymity was later breached, teens assembled in a crowd to bring to justice another teen who was falsely accused of setting up the Instagram account. But when the mob reached the Plusgymnasiet high schoool, the police had already taken her to safety. Vandalism ensued.
SEE ALSO: Images from the scene of the Gothenburg Instagram riots
Minor rioting spilled into a second day, targeting another high school, Framtidsgymnasiet.
The trial is expected to start on June 3rd. They girls are accused of slandering 46 people in total.
While police initially received more than one hundred slander reports, prosecutor Annika Boman has focused on 46 cases where the evidence was strong.
"Its the cases where there were screengrabs, an image of the insults," she told the TT news agency.
The 16-year-old who has denied the charges made against her has been linked to the incidents partly through the 15-year-old's testimony and partly through SMS traffic indicating that she at the least knew about the Instagram account.
TT/The Local/at
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