Extremism gaining traction among Swedish youth

STOCKHOLM:

Right-wing extremist ideology is gaining ground among youths in Sweden owing in part to social media and its algorithms, with primarily boys and young men openly spreading antisemitic memes and hatred online, anti-racism watchdog Expo said Tuesday.

In its annual report, Expo said Sweden's right-wing extremist environment had evolved, with traditional organised groups losing ground to more loosely-structured networks of youths.

It said the development was in line with the times.

"The ideas in this environment are being normalised. Companies like Meta and X have made it easier for right-wing extremist influencers to have greater visibility and reach a wider audience," Expo said in its annual report.

Since Elon Musk's acquisition of social media platform X in 2022 and Donald Trump's election to the White House in 2024, social media has facilitated the massive spread of hateful, racist and extremist content, which has had a direct impact on young people, Expo said.

"The share of youths who reject democracy has increased in recent years," the report said, citing a survey of Swedish youths called Ungdomsbarometern.

In addition, "schoolchildren have become more intolerant toward minorities," it said, citing a report from Sweden's public agency Living History Forum.

Teachers have reported seeing students doing Nazi salutes in schoolyards, as children increasingly spread openly antisemitic ideas online.

The report highlighted one trend on TikTok in 2025, where teens and young people posted pictures of themselves in everyday situations, often in school or posing on their mopeds, with the caption "Hate Jews, Love Girls".

Sweden's intelligence service Sapo has repeatedly warned of the risk of youths being radicalised online.

In 2025, Expo documented 1,465 activities in extreme-right circles — meetings, demonstrations, leaflet distributions, graffiti and so on — up from 1,245 a year earlier.

The increase was largely attributed to the rise of so-called "Active Clubs" in Sweden — an international movement of loosely structured groups that meet in gyms and aim to promote white-nationalist, misogynist and hyper-masculine ideology.

"Swedish right-wing extremism is undergoing a transformation. The traditional organisations are struggling to engage new activists, while new, loosely-organised networks are emerging and attracting young people," the head of Expo, Daniel Poohl, said in the report.

"This is creating a more fragmented, harder-to-grasp, and potentially more dangerous environment," he said.