How can new media facilitate the success of reactionary groups? Sweden is (not at least by itself) often portrayed as ‘one of the most gender equal countries in the world’, and it has been popular to forward gender equal or feminist issues in the public debate. However, during the last years we have seen a growing Swedish antifeminist movement online, as well as several internet-based ‘hate-campaigns’ against Swedish artists, authors, journalists and researchers who have been identified as publically participating in the Swedish feminist movement or simply dealing with feminist issues. In addition, some of the claims of the antifeminist movement have now been accepted as legitimate at a high political level. This study examines the net-based Swedish antifeminist movement and campaigns to understand how new media, in the form of social media, blogs, Internet forums etc., has provided new possibilities/incentives for groups, whose claims previously have been discursively marginalized in the public debate, to organize and voice their claims. First, the process of how the antifeminist movement and campaigns have grown online is mapped; then it is examined how this relates to the debate in the more traditional media. In addition, interviews have been conducted with central actors, such as the gatekeepers in the traditional media, to understand how the previously illegitimate claims of the antifeminists could gain a wider visibility and acceptance.
