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The Case That Killed #MeToo in Sweden
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of New York Times
Posted: August 6th, 2026
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/15/opinion/cissi...
In October 2017, [Cissi] Wallin posted a mirror selfie to her tens of thousands of followers on Instagram. “The powerful media man who drugged and raped me in 2006 is named Fredrik Virtanen,” the caption began. Today — more than four years later — Mr. Virtanen has never been charged with any crime in connection to his encounter with Ms. Wallin. (He has denied her allegations.) She, meanwhile, is a convicted criminal, at risk of prison time. In 2019 she was charged with and convicted of defamation, after Mr. Virtanen reported her to the police. Other Swedish men have pursued similar tactics: At least 12 criminal convictions have followed of women who had told their own stories since the #MeToo movement began. And now, in what might be a low point in Ms. Wallin’s quest for the right to speak about what she says happened to her, she’s about to be prosecuted again — after self-publishing a memoir. Although the book doesn’t name the man, if she’s convicted, the government will seek to have all unsold hard copies of her book destroyed. Despite Mr. Virtanen’s being one of the highest-profile writers at the country’s largest newspaper, the court concluded that he was not enough of a public figure to justify public interest in his personal conduct. Ms. Wallin’s posts, in other words, were not justifiable, and as a result, it didn’t matter whether her account of their encounter was accurate. “The court will not review whether the statements were true,” the verdict read.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on judicial system corruption and sexual abuse scandals.
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