A 52-year-old man has been given a conditional sentence and fined by a Swedish court for not deleting ‘hateful’ comments in a Facebook group he managed, according to local media.

As administrator for a Facebook group called “Stand Up For Sweden,” the man has been found guilty of allowing “grossly offensive comments that other people had posted” to remain active, a district court in Eskilstuna has ruled.

“The indictment of the 52-year-old man has been delivered because, according to the prosecutor, he has committed a violation of the law on liability for electronic message boards,” Fria Tider reports.

“According to the law, the defendant does not need to have written a post that, for example, constitutes incitement against a group of people.”

The landmark case effectively sets precedent that Swedes can and will be held responsible for ‘offensive speech’ used by other people on the internet.

“The district court found that the man must have seen six of these comments and that he therefore had intentions not to remove them,” the court said in a press release.

“The man had also become aware of the presence of the other two comments but remained passive. He was therefore judged to have been grossly negligent regarding his failure to remove these two comments.”

Similarly, a 63-year-old man was recently convicted and fined in Sweden for writing “derogatory” posts about migrants and Muslims on social media.

African migrants crossing into the U.S. and Europe have been found to be carrying large wads of cash.

(PHOTO: Johner Images / Getty Images)