A scandal is unfolding in Örebro, where the local Social Democrats appear to have kept records of people who interacted in any way with posts from the Örebro Party and its outspoken party leader, Markus Allard, on social media.

In the aftermath of turmoil at the Örebro Regional Council in February, Council Chair Torgny Larsson (S) tasked a staff member with preparing a document consisting of screenshots of comments and reactions to the Örebro Party’s social media posts.

According to Region Örebro’s chief of staff Niklas Tiedermann, the purpose was to conduct “environmental monitoring” and to provide “a basis for decisions on how order and democratic dialogue can be ensured at future meetings,” while the Örebro Party claims this amounts to opinion registration.

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To Swedish public television, Deputy Council Chair Bo Rudolfsson (Christian Democrats) stated that the purpose was to map out how the regional council was being discussed and how the presidium was perceived.

“There wasn’t even a thought of opinion registration on our part. We wanted to know how we were seen as a presidium and how we were performing our work,” he said, denying that they asked the staff member to compile comments and the users behind the posts—just to count the share of positive and negative comments.

Markus Allard does not agree.

“This shows that everything has not been handled properly. You can’t call this anything but opinion registration,” Allard told SVT.

According to Allard, the staff member who conducted the registrations confirmed that he was instructed to map people’s opinions regarding the Örebro Party’s actions in the regional council.

Reporting Themselves

The document may be illegal and violate rules for handling personal data. To investigate whether the handling was improper, the Örebro region has now reported itself to the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, IMY.

In a telephone call with Allard, the staff member in question admitted that he had been directed to compile “reactions on social media.”

“In reality, he has been forced to map and systematically compile a document of several of you who like, share, follow, and comment in the Örebro Party’s social media channels,” writes Allard:

According to Allard, the Sweden Democrats, Moderates, and Liberals knew about the Social Democrats’ opinion registration but did nothing about it.

After the commotion in February, the regional council has introduced new rules of order.

Allard debates the potentially illegal opinion registration:

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