Teens convicted for Instagram 'slut-shaming'
Two Swedish teen girls were convicted on Tuesday for aggravated defamation and ordered to pay a total of 570,000 kronor ($85,370) to their victims, for their role in operating a "slut-shaming" Instagram account that led to rioting in Gothenburg.
One of the girls, 15, was sentenced by the Gothenburg District Court to juvenile detention, while her 16-year-old accomplice was sentenced to 45 hours of community service.
Together, they must also pay 15,000 kronor in damages to each of the 38 victims of the public shaming, which comes to a total of 570,000 kronor. The victims had asked for over 760,000 kronor.
IN PICTURES: Click here to see images from the Gothenburg riots
Arash Raoufi, who represented the victims in the case, was pleased with the verdict.
"I have found the time to speak with some of them and a lot of people sound happy, they think it's wonderful. The damages themselves have been more a question of principal," he told the TT news agency.
Both girls were sentenced after setting up an account on picture-sharing website Instagram in December that encouraged other users to publish photographs of "sluts" alongside claims of their sexual activities.
The older of the two girls denied the allegations, yet the court stated that she "had considerable difficulties in answering seemingly simple questions about factual circumstances".
Her lawyer Claes Östlund believed the conviction was "a little harsh", especially considering the teenager's mother was told to pay half of her daughter's fines.
"Think about it... how can you stop your daughter from going in on the net and writing that someone is a whore when you don't even have a computer yourself," he told TT.
It remains uncertain if the teenager will launch an appeal.
The district court's reasoning stated that the information the girls published was "in all cases of deeply intrusive nature". It took into consideration that the pictures "spread quickly and widely".
Riots began when the pictures were published and police made 27 arrests as some teenagers engaged in vandalism and resisted orders. A smaller mob the following day also caused enough of a commotion to lead to several arrests.
TT/The Local/og
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One of the girls, 15, was sentenced by the Gothenburg District Court to juvenile detention, while her 16-year-old accomplice was sentenced to 45 hours of community service.
Together, they must also pay 15,000 kronor in damages to each of the 38 victims of the public shaming, which comes to a total of 570,000 kronor. The victims had asked for over 760,000 kronor.
IN PICTURES: Click here to see images from the Gothenburg riots
Arash Raoufi, who represented the victims in the case, was pleased with the verdict.
"I have found the time to speak with some of them and a lot of people sound happy, they think it's wonderful. The damages themselves have been more a question of principal," he told the TT news agency.
Both girls were sentenced after setting up an account on picture-sharing website Instagram in December that encouraged other users to publish photographs of "sluts" alongside claims of their sexual activities.
The older of the two girls denied the allegations, yet the court stated that she "had considerable difficulties in answering seemingly simple questions about factual circumstances".
Her lawyer Claes Östlund believed the conviction was "a little harsh", especially considering the teenager's mother was told to pay half of her daughter's fines.
"Think about it... how can you stop your daughter from going in on the net and writing that someone is a whore when you don't even have a computer yourself," he told TT.
It remains uncertain if the teenager will launch an appeal.
The district court's reasoning stated that the information the girls published was "in all cases of deeply intrusive nature". It took into consideration that the pictures "spread quickly and widely".
Riots began when the pictures were published and police made 27 arrests as some teenagers engaged in vandalism and resisted orders. A smaller mob the following day also caused enough of a commotion to lead to several arrests.
TT/The Local/og
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