Donald Trump being fact-checked by... me???? Twitter-storm and media-storm in Sweden...

[kseenaa]

I... don't even know where to start this post. o.O

Let's see... I took over the @sweden Monday 13th. Was a lot of active users following it, around 104'000. So there was a lot of questions and comments being thrown at me. But not more than I could keep up with. The nasty ones I just ignored. :-)

It was fun. I tweeted about my days. I tweeted about my city, Borås. I tweeted about books, since I am a librarian. Gave tips for reading about Sweden. What you can do coming to visit Sweden, and what fun there is to do in different cities.

Just what I'd expected to do on such a Twitter account. And the same thing I did, pretty much, when I was a voice for Sweden on The Swedish Number. Only this time I had to write my answers and to a lot more people then I had done then. So it was all fun and games...

Until after midnight Saturday night (swedish time). When Donald Trump held a speech where he talked about refugees and terrorist attacks. "Look at what's happening in Sweden. Last night in Sweden..."

I didn't know about this. Until suddenly A TON of people started to ask the only swede awake. On Twitter. @sweden. What is happening? Are you OK? Is ABBA fine? Have Måns Zelmerlöf been hurt? Etc, etc, etc... Et infinity...

I was left with thinking, what the FUCK is he talking about? Checking all the sources I could think off (because fact-check, people!), I came to the conclusion it was bullshit. And proceeded to tell the followers as much, mostly to reassure everyone and inform, you know?

This went on for all night until I noticed the time. 3:45am. SHIT! Kiddo usually wakes up at 7am, so I hurried to bed for a bit of sleep.

Woke up all groggy and shit and cuddled kiddo in the couch. And checked @sweden twitter. Between 800-900 mentions. HOLY HELL!!! Obviously I couldn't answer everyone, but I answered a few here and there, and kept informing and reassuring that NOTHING HAS HAPPENED!!!

And (gladly) after I had started to wake up, the media-circus started...

First a web-page/web-news page called Mashable mailed me questions about what had happened.... And then, hold your hats, BBC who I did a live-interview with right on air. And Le Monde (from France), DMed me and mailed me. After that, swedish media got in on it. And they to contacted me.

So I had the two MAIN NEWS SHOWS here in my messy home interviewing and filming me. WTF??? Both Rapport and TV4News.

After than it was the local newspaper that called and did a phone interview, Borås Tidning.

At this point I'm so flabbergasted, I had no words. To me, it was no huge deal. I'd spread information, spoke the truth and been myself. That's all. But these people seemed to see it as if I'd spoken against Donald Trump. *shrug* I suppose in a way I had, but I didn't and still don't see it like that.

Next news-site that contacted me and did a phone-interview was The Local who has swedish news in english. And the Daglige Blad from Norway.

And then... BBC contacted me AGAIN!!! X-D So I did another live-interview with them.

That was the last one I did on Sunday. I'd promised both myself, peting73 and Alexandra that I wouldn't do anything after 6pm at night, since... family is the most important after all.

I went to bed quite late again, since the storm had not stopped on the account. I was still the swede of the week on @sweden. And Sunday night was my last night, so I wanted to keep information coming for as long as possible before I had to logg out. So I did. There was still TONS and TONS of questions pouring in and I answered as best I could. Tweeting information and news as best I could. Until finally I was to exhausted and logged out and collapsed in bed.

You'd think since I was not the swede of the week on Monday I wouldn't have anyone calling me? Wrong! SO wrong!

I'd gotten emails during Sunday from the public radio here in Sweden about doing a couple of mornings show Monday morning. So I had to get up early, since the first one was to call me at... 6:45 am.

So at 6:45am I talked to the morning show in Stockholm. 7:15am I talked to the local radio-show Radio Sjuhärad... And at 7:30am I talked to the the morning show P3 Morgon-passet.

After that I threw myself in the shower taking a shower and after that getting makeup on, because after that...

I was to be on BBC (AGAIN!). This time it was BBC News (what??!?!). I didn't know if they wanted with my face to on Skype, so hence the makeup. Proved they didn't need that, oh well...

My mom came over that monday, THANK GAWD! Because during the day I was contacted by CNN in New York, USA.

I... had no words at this point, and more was to come... So we scheduled an interview late that evening my time. (After Alexandras bedtime.)

Mom helped me clean a bit and we hung out. Went to pick up Alexandra and we stopped at the playground, which Alexandra wanted. And when we hung out by the playground I got a phone call from one of my colleagues who jokingly called me the celebrity. Then she said that there'd been a call to them asking for my phone-number. From the swedish government. WHAT??? Of course it was fine if they called me. So they did.

And it was the Head of Staff at the Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström. Who called to give me an official thank you from the swedish government.

WHAT??!??! I was beyond happy I was sitting down at that point, let me tell you.

Mom stayed with us all day, until bedtime. I even dozzed off leaning against her at one point after dinner. It felt wonderful. I swear to anything holy, I'll always need mom. She is my piler of support when things storm around me. She, peting73 and my best friend spicehobbit.

Anyway, later that night CNN called me up on Skype, and everything got set up and all. They were very very professional and effective. The interviewer, live on air and everything, was Brooke Baldwin, apparently. I couldn't see. I only saw my screen, but apparently they had me on image on the show. They had to cut it short though, since Donald Trump announced new members of the White House staff. Which was fine, really!

You'd think that was the last of it, but no...

The day after, Tuesday, I was doing a live-thing on Facebook with a couple of people from The Swedish Institute who runs the @sweden twitter account and are responsibel for it. It was weird but also a lot of fun.

That, however, was the last of it!!!!

Today I've just stayed home and not done a damn thing. GEEZES CHRIST!

So... How was your weekend? X-D *LOL*

And here's all the links to everything I've done. Only thing I couldn't find a link for was the Norweigan newspaper. :-) In case you wanna read, listen or watch. If it's in swedish, I'll make a note for it.

All the interviews about the swedish incident aka #lastnightinsweden...

Mashable: HERE (news website)

BBC Newshour: HERE (radio-show)

Le Monde: HERE (Google translated from french) (newspaper in France)

Expressen: HERE (in swedish) (newspaper)

Rapport: HERE (in swedish) (main news on swedish TV)

TV4 Nyheterna: HERE (in swedish) (main news on swedish TV)

BT: HERE (in swedish) (local newspaper)

Aftonbladet: HERE (in swedish) (newspaper)

Dagens Nyheter: HERE (in swedish) (newspaper)

The Local: HERE (website, swedish news in english)

Daglige Blad (couldn't find) (Norwegian newspaper)

Today program BBC 4 Radio: HERE (radio-show)

P5 Stockholm Morgon program: HERE (in swedish) (radio-show in Stockholm)

P4 Radio Sjuhärad Morgon: HERE (in swedish) (local radio-show)

P3 Morgonpasset: HERE (fast forward 36min) (in swedish) (radio-show in Stockholm)

Biblioteksbladet: HERE (in swedish) (librarian news-paper)

BBC NEWS: HERE (website)

CNN Newsroom: (transcript): HERE (transcript of live interview on air)

Sweden.Se on Facebook, recorded live: HERE

And lastely, not with me involved but still, Stepen Colberts comments on the whole thing: HERE

This entry is crossposted between LJ and DW. Comment where you are comfortable.

Comments

[bubblesbrnaid]

Wow. I remember you posting about the Twitter, and then I saw the shitstorm, of course, but I did not put those two together.

Excellent work!

And yeah, we really do apologize for him....

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

To be honest, that was the saddest thing about the whole thing. All the americans apologizing for their president. There were SO MANY mentions with that being thrown at that account. I don't know if that is still the case, but for as long as I had it, that was what struck me.

I think Max, who runs it now, is a very learned young man. And he has friends working with statistics here in Sweden, so he can throw cold hard updated facts at people. Which is really just perfect.

[steinsgrrl.livejournal.com]

"My experience from over here with Trump is that he doesn't appear to live in the real world."

This is perfect. I like that you were fact-checking him. (You know you're on a list now. It was nice knowing you. lol)

That Stephen Colbert clip made me lol.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha! :-D Since the swedish government thanked me, I would hope I have a little protection there. ;-)

I didn't even think about the fact I fact-checked Trump. I just wanted to reassure the followers of the account, you know?

[manoah.livejournal.com]

I honestly have no words. I'm completely and utterly gobsmacked.

I did not vote for him.

Bless you.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

The amounts of face-palms I did the night between friday and saturday (my time) was numerous, let me tell you. I even did a face-palm selfie that later got spread around among news-papers, funny enough, since I took at nearly 4am in the morning. X-D

Oh, and the amount of americans apologizing for him was... numerous. So so many... And it made me feel sad, to be honest.

[lynnenne]

I'm sorry I missed you on the news! I did, however, see both the current and former prime ministers of Sweden on Canadian television. Their reaction was basically, "What the fuck is he talking about??"

You are truly doing god's work.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was my reaction to. I loved what Carl Bildt, one of the former prime ministers, tweeted. "What has he been smoking?" Dude, I was asking the same thing. Just saying.

[titacats.livejournal.com]

As my daughter would say, bless.

I saw that Colbert clip that night! Lol checked out the Mashable and BBC that day too. He really is in a world of his own, ugh.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :-D You got a wise daughter. ;-)

Yeah, he pretty much nailed it, didn't he? :-) I rather like him.

Trump is an idiot with some sort of mental disorder, to be honest.

[shapinglight]

That was you? OMG! I heard one of your BBC interviews, and when they said it was a Swedish librarian, I thought, could it be? Then I thought, nah, that'd be too much of a coincidence.

I thought you were great, btw. Well done!

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU! Yeah, that was me. The weekend has been... hectic, to say the least. *lol*

[teragramm.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's so crazy! All that craziness because our stupid president doesn't know how to fact check. Yo could probably teach him a thing or two.~_^

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Ever since he started out his campaign I've noticed that fact and truth is just not something he thinks is important. I'm afraid that hasn't approved since he got the presidency, has it? :-/

[teragramm.livejournal.com]

No, his truth telling hasn't improved since he was elected. Part of the reason is that he gets his info from dubious sources and NO ONE on his staff double checks the info. *rolls eyes*

So sorry his misinformation has caused you so much trouble.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

For me it was just a case of rolling my eyes so hard I got a headache...

But of course, it does cause concern for the swedish government. And more work for them since they have asked the embassy here for an explanation, pretty much. I don't think Trump realizes that his spur of the moment things actually have consequences these days...

[volare.livejournal.com]

You = Awesome!

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

HA HA HA! :-D THANK YOU!!!

[brunettepet.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is insane. You did an excellent job.

Our President is an embarrassment. You, on the other hand, rock.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I felt so bad for all the americans that apologized for their president. It was so sad to read. Still is. :-/

Thank you though! :-) That is so nice of you to say!

[garnigal.livejournal.com]

Whoa, that's some timing. So glad you were on the Twitter feed that night, someone else may not have been so prompt or direct.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what my best friend said. What if it had been someone that got pissed off and started to yell and make a scene on that twitter-account? Of who'd just ignored the whole thing? To me, it was no big deal, but looking at it like that though...

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

oh my gosh that is INSANE!!!!!!! I knew about him making that ridiculous comment because he watching some special on FOX News and apparently didn't understand it wasn't in real time (we are doomed) but I didn't even think that YOU would be the one sitting there doing @sweden. I'm surprised someone more official didn't swoop in to take over LOL. Well done though! What a crazy thing. You did well!

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Interesting thing about that Fox News interview is that... in the segment from the 'documentary' (and I use that word very loosely...) there's two swedish cops being interviewed. And it does sound like Sweden is about to go down in flames from their answers. But those two cops have gone out in media here in Sweden saying that the documentary maker, Ami Horowitz, is a madman. He'd asked them something totally different, and then edited the whole thing to cut out their answers totally out of context to make it sound like a swedish apocalypse...

And that's the facts Trump used for that statement of his...

I don't even know about your country... I'm so sorry. :-/

Glad to hear you think I did a good job though. :-) I did try my best. Could only be myself and tell the truth.

[gobbolina.livejournal.com]

Wow, that must have been so exhausting! And exciting at the same time. How did you manage all that?
I will check the links later that week. I'm so curious. ^^

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

It was more mentally exhausting than anything else. Because I constantly got emails, messages and calls. Gladly I had a good up bring so I'm quite a steady calm person in myself. So I just took it one at a time, in the order people had contacted me. Except the swedish government. I answered them right away. *lol*

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

That's amazing! Well done for coping with that storm of interest, just for doing what a sensible librarian does, and checking facts before mouthing off. I'm glad it was you on @sweden (though this week's guy seems to be keeping up the good work of facts too... I guess you set a good standard!).

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yeah, it was a bit of a crazy ass media-storm, to put it mildly.

The guy running it now until Sunday, Max, is a great guy! Really great! We've talked a little bit over Skype and DM's on Twitter. He is REALLY smart and has a friend I believe who works professionally with statistics so he has a really easy time finding facts to. :-D I think he is doing a GREAT job!

[double_dutchess]

Wow, who would have thought you being the Twitter-voice of Sweden would lead to this! I checked out several of the links you posted and I think you did a great job. I hope you've been enjoying some well-deserved rest the past few days!

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have! Trust me! Tuesday I had some errands to run, but Wedneysday? I didn't do a damn thing! X-D Trust me! It's been crazy. And now the new @sweden-person has to deal with the crazy instead!