The debater: Now the party leaders must take responsibility for the disinformation
Published 2024-01-04 06.00
DEBATE. Reports from several municipalities in northern Sweden are worrying. Politicians step in and spread the disinformation that the social service would wrongfully kidnap children, despite both the Prime Minister and the National Defense Academy having determined that the so-called “LVU campaign” is the worst influence campaign that Sweden has ever been exposed to.
A moderate politician in Gällivare recently said about forced custody of children that “this has been random, it’s the opportunity that does it and that’s why it’s so terrible”. That in connection with a discussion about LVU matters in Gällivare.
That’s a hair-raising statement. It is deeply worrying that politicians in Sweden contribute to spreading outright lies.
This politician is not alone, in Gällivare during the year several local politicians who decide whether children should be taken into care have been involved in spreading incorrect information after they joined people in the LVU campaign.
In Älvsbyn, local politicians decided to overturn the court’s decision to take care of children after the chairman allowed himself to be influenced by parents who claimed that their children had been kidnapped, despite the fact that the parent in question is suspected of both child pornography offenses and child molestation. The chairman of the social committee has therefore been forced to resign.
Politicians who step in and, without accounting for the facts, accused social services and fueled the disinformation campaign. The party leaders must condemn when their elected representatives fuel the disinformation.
Taking care of a child is one of the most intervening things society can do. Therefore, the process is tightly regulated in legislation.
The social service carries out a child welfare investigation that is based on facts about the situation and results in an assessment based on the child’s best interests. The politicians in the social welfare committee then make a decision to apply for LVU, then the matter is decided by a court after the parties have spoken.
The University of Defense clearly points to the importance of social services having a high level of trust among the public to be able to do a good job. A trust that in parts of the own population has been seriously damaged as a result of the influence campaign.
The disinformation campaign has claimed that social services kidnap children and specifically target children with foreign origins and Muslim beliefs. In the wake of the campaign, we have seen hatred and threats against Swedish public institutions and individual social workers, and calls for violence and terrorist attacks.
The state must take on the task of informing social services in a municipality when their workplace is exposed to threats in social media. It cannot be up to the social workers themselves to discover that they are vulnerable.
Social services must work closer to the families whose children are at risk of harm and be able to work on long-term prevention. Deliberately creating fear of the social services leads to more children getting hurt and to a lack of trust.
To deal with the situation, it is necessary to: The parties in the Riksdag must take responsibility for the politicians from their parties who spread lies about social services and take action against them. The government appoints a safety commission where trade unions, employers and the state are involved so that the right measures can be put in place quickly. Unauthorized influence and threats must be reported to the police by the employer. Today, it is the individual social worker who is the plaintiff, which means that personal data and home address are disclosed to the suspect. This reduces employees’ willingness to report the crimes they are subjected to to the police. A change in the law is required. Everyone must understand what decisions are being made. Secure access to qualified interpreters, it is crucial to ensure legal certainty and the understanding of social services’ efforts and decisions.
The LVU campaign has contributed to a direct threat to civil servants, the exercise of Swedish authority and Sweden in general. It undermines trust in social services, in politics and in the courts.
This is an attack on the Swedish rule of law and on open democratic Sweden.
Heike Erkers, chairman of the Association of Academicians SSR