The municipality of Båstad issued a storm warning yesterday. A post on how to storm-proof their homes and what the weather looked like was published on the municipality's website and their Facebook page.
- For our part, it is important that the public can feel confident in what we write and what we communicate, especially in a crisis situation, says Jessica Krantz, Head of Communications at Båstad Municipality.
Not long after, a joking post was published that claimed to come from the municipality.
- A private person had copied our post and distorted it. It had been a joke of it. Then the post was published in a local Facebook page in the Båstad district, she says.
To a large extent, the post contained the municipality's original information, however, it had been added that there was a risk that large parts of Skåne could end up in Halland and that train traffic was canceled on the Båstad-Torekov route.
- We understand that it is a joke and that you have not done it with malicious intent, but we think it is unfortunate when someone pretends to be Båstad municipality. You can believe that we are the sender and use our logo in that way, says Jessica Krantz.
During the evening, the post spread nationally and became viral, which led to many people searching for Båstad's website, which then crashed.
- We got too high load on our site. It was down for 45 minutes to an hour in the evening.
Do you know who did this?
- There is a name for the person who has posted the post in the Facebook group from the beginning. We have not chosen to contact that person and we have not chosen to proceed with this during the day anyway, ”she says.
Will you go ahead with it?
- We haven't taken a position on this issue yet.