“Kanske att fler barn kan bli räddade ur socialtjänstens klor?” : En kritisk diskursanalys om desinformation och Socialtjänsten på forumet Flashback

The spread of disinformation in Sweden is not a new phenomenon and has long been considered a problem for the Swedish Social Services. Though in recent years, misinformation and rumours about the Social Services have increased. The main narratives revolve around the Social Services allegedly kidnapping children of foreign descent without the support of LVU (Care of Young Persons Act) and are commonly referred to as the LVU campaign. Previous research primarily focuses on the portrayal of the Social Services by traditional media, creating a knowledge gap regarding the Social Services and social media. The aim of this study is to examine and increase understanding of discourses about the Social Services among users on the social media platform Flashback. By using a thematic analysis method, we have reduced and sorted the posts found in our Flashback forum of choice. The thematic analysis method enabled the construction of different themes that appeared frequently in the forum. Subsequently, a critical discourse analysis was applied to the material to identify the discourses that emerged in the forum. The critical discourse analysis includes a three-dimensional model and several concepts used to conduct the analysis. The main findings of the study shows that discussions among users on Flashback can involve several different aspects, and users have varying perspectives on the Social Services. This means that the portrayal of the Social Services on Flashback becomes complex as both positive and negative opinions are constantly expressed, along with different problem representations. The Social Services are often described negatively, and when multiple users agree with each other, the negative image of the Social Services becomes a "truth". Positive and negative discourses are also expressed in the Flashback forum, and these are constantly in opposition to each other. In the negative discourses, there is also an expression of fear towards the Social Services and the remov