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02nd Aug 2017

Anti-immigrant grouped mocked after they mistook bus seats for burkas

Ah here.

Alan Loughnane

They described the bus seats as “frightening” and “tragic”…

A Norwegian anti-immigrant group have become an object of ridicule after some members of their group mistook a photo of six bus seats in Oslo for a group of women wearing burkas.

Members of the closed Fedrelandet viktigst, or “Fatherland first” group posted the picture of the empty bus in their group with the caption: “What do people think of this?”

A number of members commented on how “frightening”, “tragic” and “scary” the scene was.

“It looks really scary, should be banned. You can never know who is under there. Could be terrorists with weapons,” one group user wrote.

“Get them out of our country, those who look like collapsed umbrellas. Frightening times we are living in,” another wrote.

No, they’re actually bus seats.

The replies from the other group members went viral after Sindre Beyer took a screenshot of the post and comments and shared them online.

One user commented on Beyer’s post saying: “When I think that nothing will surprise me with that gang, then they actually have to surprise me.”

Beyer told Nettavisen that he’s been following the group for a while, and wanted to draw attention to some of the more sinister parts of the web, which is why he shared it.

“I’m shocked by how much hate and fake news is spread there. The hatred that was displayed toward some empty bus seats really shows how much prejudices trump wisdom,” he said.

“That’s why I shared the post so that more people can see what is happening in the dark corners of the web,” he added.

Johan Slattavik, the user who initially uploaded the images to Fedrelandet viktigst, told WorldViews that he had been bored one night so he decided to play “a little practical joke.”

Slattavik said he wondered how people would react to the photo. “I laid out the photo to see what happened,” he said, adding that he was shocked so many people fell for it.”