Sweden seriously considers letting US comedian Stephen Colbert control the country’s Twitter account

It’s no secret that Sweden (yes, the country) lets its citizens control the nation’s Twitter account. That’s either genius or insanity, we can’t quite decide, but in the wake of the controversial Jew-comments emanating from one citizen earlier this month, the idea may lean slightly closer to the latter.

Now, following US comedian Stephen Colbert’s attempts to gain access to the Scandinavian country’s microblogging account for a week, as The Local reports, it seems that rather than laughing the very idea into the ground (though it apparently did find it amusing), the country is seriously considering letting him at it.

Stephen Colbert is a political satirist, writer, comedian and actor, who currently hosts Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report.

“After two weeks of giving vague responses to Colbert’s repeated requests, the Swedish Institute and Visit Sweden have both said they are discussing the prospect of Colbert becoming a curator of the Sweden Twitter account and plan to issue a verdict next week as to whether the TV host will get the account,” writes The Local, an English-language Swedish news publication.

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The publication quotes Sergio Guimaraes from the Swedish Institute as saying, “We’re discussing it now, and we’re aiming at coming to a decision next week.”

It would be an interesting move for sure. Not only would most countries not let their citizens anywhere near an official communications channel, but they almost certainly wouldn’t let a citizen from another country – and a satirical comedian at that – take the reigns.

“Of course, we’re very flattered that Colbert is interested, though we are concerned that he may not be able to give an authentic view of the country,” said Johannes Karlsson, the head of PR and Social Media at Visit Sweden. “But we are now in discussions about the possibility.”

Sweden lets a different individual take control of the account for a week. The Twitter account actually scooped the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Lions International festival of Creativity, “for the best international viral marketing campaign on Wednesday.”

➤ Sweden Twitter Account

Feature Image Credit: Comedy Central