The Instagram 'slut shaming' which sparked a riot: Teenage girls who set-up account are jailed and fined £55,000 after hundreds took to streets of Gothenburg in violent protest

'Sluts of Gothenburg' page sparked riots at Swedish school in December

Girls aged 15 and 16 must pay £1,450 to each of 38 defamation victims

Younger girl sent to juvenile detention and elder gets community service



Two teenage girls who incited riots in Sweden by posting insults about about their classmates online and calling them 'sluts' have been found guilty of defamation.



The defendants, aged 15 and 16, set up an Instagram page on which they posted photographs of other girls and boys annotated with derogatory remarks.



They were ordered to pay more than £55,000 in compensation to their victims, while the younger girl was sentenced to juvenile detention and the elder to community service.

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Sentenced: The girls who set up this 'Sluts of Gothenburg' account on Instagram have been found guilty of defamation Fined: One of the girls is pictured in court with Arash Raoufi, who represented the victims in the case

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In December, the girls created the 'Sluts of Gothenburg' account on photo-sharing site Instagram, encouraging people to share photos of teenagers whom they claimed were sexually promiscuous.



One of them put out an appeal asking 'which young people are the worst sluts in Gothenburg', and received hundreds of replies.

The page quickly became notorious in Sweden's second-largest city, and a crowd of hundreds turned up at a school rumoured to be attended by the page's creator in protest at the 'slut-shaming' behaviour, prompting a showdown with police.



The 15-year-old admitted setting up the Instagram account, and although the elder girl denied the charges the Gothenburg District Court criticised her for seeming to have a poor grasp of facts.



Inflammatory: Gothenburg was hit with riots over the controversial online posts in December

Showdown: Police confronted protesters who turned up at the girls' school in vigilante retaliation

They were proven to have been responsible for the online abuse thanks to forensic evidence which was submitted to the court.



The two girls will have to pay their 38 victims 15,000 kronor (£1,450 each) in compensation for the defamation.



Arash Raoufi, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the verdict could help curb cyber-bullying by showing that it is impossible to hide behind an online pseudonym in order to abuse others.



Mobbed: Students engulfed cars at the school as they showed their anger at the account



'Many think they are anonymous when they are sitting behind a computer and therefore take greater liberties than if that anonymity wasn't there,' he said.



'The verdict sends a signal to young people and society that this indignity culture cannot be allowed to exist. I hope it will also result in parents being more alert to what kids do at the computer.'



However, the 16-year-old's lawyer Claes Östlund told The Local that the sentences were 'a little harsh', and criticised the ruling that the girls' parents must pay half of their fine.

