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DUCKBURG (Rixstep) — Sweden's politically correct media/political elite have been off the deep end for some time. We remember the campaigns against Julian Assange and free speech. But things went really ballistic the other week when the Swedish Institute took on Vian Tahir to manage their Twitter propaganda for a week. The result was of course a complete disaster, yet people at the institute still don't get it.

   From: Vian Tahir [mailto:info.vian.se]
   Sent: 3 May 2017 14:02
     To: Emma Randecker
Subject: Re: Agreements and guidelines

Hi Emma! Here comes everything for Sweden, but I have a question about trolls. I've seen that there's a lot and especially recently. I didn't think it'd be a problem, because I have a way of importing my block list via blocktogether.org. But now I see this won't work because I can't log in to twitter.com. Is there any way to fix this? This is a block list I've worked on a long time which focuses on trolls which spares me from the worst of it, so I'd rather not start tweeting without it on such a large account.

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   From: Emma Randecker
   Sent: 5 May 2017 14:51
     To: Vian Tahir
Subject: Re: Agreements and guidelines

Hi Vian! That sounds really smart! Our webmaster Adi will take care of it. :) See you on Monday! Have a good weekend! /Emma

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   From: Vian Tahir [mailto:info.vian.se]
   Sent: 5 May 2017 14:02
     To: Emma Randecker
Subject: Re: Agreements and guidelines

Hi Emma! You can import the list by adding blocktogether to your account. That's a service that helps you share lists. It'd be really good for me if you added it, so that after my week [on the @sweden account] I can import back the blocks I'll most likely have made during the week! Blocktogether was created precisely to tackle online harassment, threats, and hate. By subscribing to my list, you'll automatically block all troll accounts that I've blocked. If it's an account that @sweden is already following, it won't be blocked. You can read more about the service here: https://blocktogether.org And here is my list: https://blocktogether.org/show-blocks/ 6969cf7ad7184c5efa33bfe981dff74b1bd7af06cb5bcf90da036a6d9d89200fc98ec933e0c6843c24eb409a6c23a1142 Have a nice weekend! Vian

/* */

Hi Marcin, Thanks for writing. Words of wisdom. I've had ongoing contact with Vian, and she's explained her approach and various reasons for blocking. But here at SI we'd naively not understood that her extensive blocking would get SUCH a reaction - but, as you yourself say, that's not our primary demographic. Good to hear you agree with my own theory about this being only about a smaller gang attacking together. What I think is the worst is that her approach to blocking is in conflict with our own policy which states 'each curator on @sweden has the right to block twitterers who interact with the account, if he or she deems this necessary'. She even blocks twitterers for tweets directed at others. But we spin this by pointing out that the wellbeing of the curator is what's most important to us. I should add that we've received messages of praise from people who appreciate Vian and SI standing strong against net hate and the fact that the conversation climate's been a lot more pleasant this week. I'm sending this to my colleagues who are also involved in this so they can also benefit from your thoughts and support. This project is always exciting. I'm getting ready for yet another day of battle on Twitter. Greetings, Emma

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   From: Vian Tahir [mailto:info.vian.se]
   Sent: 15 May 2017 13:34
     To: Emma Randecker
Subject: Re: Dispatch

Hi Emma! Great text and really good you made a form for this. You can write in my name, that's fine. My only suggestion is you don't say how many accounts have been blocked for personal reasons, as that will only lead to unnecessary discussion where people will ask about those accounts, or start speculating as 'I know that all these accounts have been blocked which of them do you feel are OK', and so forth. I suggest you instead give them a number, because then you show them what a small number are really innocent (despite their having so many followers who are not) but such statistics have a tendency to backfire with this type of net activity. For example, if you wanted to take things out of context and make a screenshot of only a portion, a very popular Twitter tactic to create storms. My suggestion is you write 'a fraction' or 'a snall number' and that it's been remedied, along with something about the list being continually reviewed all week long and how it will continue to be reviewed, or something like that. Then I think you'll avoid a few of the trolls. Vian

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   From: Vian Tahir [mailto:info.vian.se]
   Sent: 16 May 2017 15:22
     To: Emma Randecker
     Cc: Jenny Ljung
Subject: Re: Agreements and guidelines

Hi, I have been the victim of a clumsy semi-hacker attack to get at my private block list, it's being described now as yours which it is not. This results in those I wanted to avoid now targeting me, that's to say sites like Nyheter Idag and their followers who have published my list.