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CRIME

Denmark criminalises social media impersonation of others

It is now against the law in Denmark to create a social media profile which looks like it belongs to another person.

Published: 3 March 2022 17:24 CET
Illustration photo of social media
Illustration photo. Denmark has made it illegal to impersonate another person using a social media profile. Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

A large majority in the country’s parliament passed the new law on Thursday, the Ministry of Justice said in a statement.

“It is a breach of personal boundaries and deeply unpleasant to have one’s identity misused on social media. We as a society must not accept this type of behaviour and we must give better protection to victims,” Justice Minister Nick Hækkerup said in the statement.

“That’s why I’m very satisfied that a broad majority in parliament has today voted to criminalise misuse of identity online, so the law keeps up with the times and clearly underlines the seriousness of the crime,” he said.

The issue of online impersonation has become more prominent in Denmark in recent months. That is in no small part due to coverage of the issue by national broadcaster DR, which told victims’ stories and confronted online impersonators in documentary programmes including 100 falske forelskelser (roughly, ‘100 Fake Infatuations’) and Den falske caster (‘The Fake Casting Agent’).

Under current law, it is not illegal to create a profile on social media which impersonates another person unless there is criminal intent. That changes under the new law, which takes effect on April 1st.

It will also be illegal to use another person’s picture or video of them with the intention of manipulating their actions in an “unreasonable manner” under to the new law.

Conviction under the law can result in a fine or prison sentence up to six months.

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CRIME

Danish government backs removing children from gang-connected families

Denmark’s government wants authorities to be able to move children out of families in which parents are gang members and is likely to formalise the measure in parliament.

Published: 9 April 2024 13:38 CEST
Danish government backs removing children from gang-connected families

The justice spokesperson with senior coalition partner the Social Democrats, Bjørn Brandenborg, told regional media TV2 Fyn that he wants authorities to have the power to remove children from their families in certain circumstances where the parents are gang members.

Brandenborg’s comments came on Monday, after Odense Municipality said it had spent 226 million kroner since 2009 on social services for eight specific families with gang connections.

“There is simply a need for us to give the authorities full backing and power to forcibly remove children early so we break the food chain and the children don’t become part of gang circles,” he said.

The measure will be voted on in parliament “within a few weeks”, he said.

An earlier agreement on anti-gang crime measures, which was announced by the government last November, includes provisions for measures of this nature, Brandenborg later confirmed to newswire Ritzau.

“Information [confirming] that close family members of a child or young person have been convicted for gang crime must be included as a significant and element in the municipality’s assessment” of whether an intervention is justified, the agreement states according to Ritzau.

The relevant part of November’s political agreement is expected to be voted on in parliament this month.

READ ALSO: Denmark cracks down on gang crime with extensive new agreement

Last year, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told political media Altinget that family relations to a gang member could be a parameter used by authorities when assessing whether a child should be forcibly removed from parents.

In the May 2023 interview, Hummelgaard called the measure a “hard and far-reaching measure”.

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