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  • 2016-06-02 (xsd:date)
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  • Swedish Girl Refugee Assault (en)
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  • On 28 May 2016 the Facebook page I'm white shared the meme reproduced above. It featured a photograph of a young, blonde woman, and the text said: The caption on the status updated claimed the purported incident occurred in Sweden: The photograph did not show a crime victim, however. It was published to Flickr on 5 November 2011, with a caption asking for votes in a contest (translated): According to the caption superimposed on the photograph, the 14-year-old Swedish girl was abducted and raped in 2015. Police purportedly blamed the girl for the incident, and the three assailants received no jail time. Social media users asked about the specifics of the claim, but no one produced any news links about an incident matching the description. There was, however, a story that came out in late 2015 that's very similar to the one in the meme: a thirteen-year-old girl disappeared from her home in Berlin for a day and a half, then reappeared saying she had been held captive and repeatedly raped by three men (described in separate news accounts only as migrants, asylum seekers, and southern-looking), and detailing her escape. A woman purporting to be her aunt gave a detailed and tearful account of the ordeal, and another woman claiming to be the girl's cousin spoke at length about it at a far-right political rally. The account was by turns tragic and moving. There was just one problem with the story: it was completely made up. The girl admitted her hoax just a few days after her return during the investigation, and subsequent examinations showed no signs of trauma. The meme also may have been inspired in part by a 26 May 2016 article published by British tabloid Express, which reported that police in Sweden investigated an uptick in sexual assaults carried out by asylum seekers, who then pinned blame on their teenaged victims: The article referenced a May 2016 report from the Swedish Police Authority [PDF], which examined sexual assaults in the country between 2011 and 2016. The first page mentioned refugees in passing (and cited rumors of New Year's Eve assaults), but not as a massive component of sex assaults in Sweden (translated): The report concluded by acknowledging that the issue of sexual assaults in Sweden is a complex, and needs a more dynamic law enforcement approach: Although a handful of news stories included elements of the meme's claims, none specifically involved a 14-year-old Swedish girl abducted and gang-raped for hours by refugees before she escaped. It is possible that the meme misrepresented a case we were unable to locate, but it's probably that — like the photograph — the claim is a creative illustration of its creator's fear of refugees in Europe. (en)
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