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Horrifying hate speech on ministers’ Facebook pages

Minister of Immigration and Integration Sylvi Listhaug ( Progress Party )Oslo.Minister of Immigration and Integration Sylvi Listhaug ( Progress Party ) Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB scanpix

Comments where immigrants are referred to as monkeys, Africans as birth machines and where  support for “civil war”  is implied, have all been published at the Facebook pages of two FRP ministers.

Some of the comments have been on the profile pages for weeks, without being removed by the ministers Sylvi Listhaug and Per Sandberg or their advisors.

– It is clearly hate rhetoric. I am surprised that this stuff is not removed from the Facebook pages of key politicians , it helps to reinforce hatred.

I think it is very horrifying, Professor Anne Birgitta Nilsen  says to the news agency NTB.

The linguist  had her book “Hate speech” published two years ago.

Forced Sterilization

These are some of the comments that have appeared on the ministers’ pages:

* Do we have to have a civil war before politicians understand? one of Listhaug followers asks.

The minister stated in a Dagblad- interview that she is worried that Africa’s population growth and Middle East unrest will increase the pressure against Norway.
A follower writes that she is willing to “do whatever it takes.”

*One man believes the entire African population are “birth machines” and should be forcibly sterilized, .

* “You never know where you are with those damn monkeys they are the used to jump from tree to tree no give them a banana,” one comment to one of  Per Sandberg’s Facebook updates read.

* After a Sandberg post about car taxes a man  suggested that he might run down Liberal leader Trine Skei Grande – called ” the grandiosa” – if she were to appear in front of his car. But only almost, he emphasizes.

– Have a responsibility

The ministers have not spoken out against the aforementioned comments on their Facebook pages.
– Listhaug and Sandberg should have removed those comments.

They have a responsibility for their Facebook pages. When people are inciting to violence or dehumanizing other people, it should certainly not go unchallenged,  Nilsen says.

She points out that ministers are role models for many people and that many people will think that these kinds of statements are okay when they are not removed from the Facebook pages.

– Opposed to such comments

Listhaug writes in an email to NTB that she is opposed to such comments.
– We do our best to delete comments and clearly state our opinions about them to the transgressors, says Listhaug, who said that there is a “a huge rush” on her Facebook page.

– On some of our posts, we get over a thousand comments, and when this happens we  simplydo  not have the capacity to be there 24/7 to keep watch. We do the best we can. For us it is important that people are responsible for what they post, said Listhaug.

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today