Tobias Thyberg, Sweden’s newly appointed national security adviser, resigned just hours after taking office due to sensitive images from his past being anonymously sent to the Swedish government. The pictures, which were taken from his Grindr dating app profile, were shared shortly after Thyberg’s appointment was publicly announced on Thursday. Thyberg had neglected to disclose these details during his security vetting process, a move that led to his immediate resignation the following morning.
“I should have informed about this, but I did not,” Thyberg admitted to the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, confirming that the images were from an old account he had on Grindr.
The scandal unfolded just before a major meeting between the Swedish Prime Minister and northern European leaders, which Thyberg was scheduled to attend in Norway. His participation in the meeting was swiftly cancelled following his resignation.
According to reports from Swedish media outlet Expressen, the government received several sexually explicit photos sent by an anonymous source, which were timed with the press release announcing Thyberg’s new role. The anonymous nature of the images raised further concerns over the breach of security protocols during the vetting process.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson addressed the situation on Friday, stating that the failure to uncover this information during the vetting process was a systemic failure. “This kind of information should have been brought to light earlier,” he said to reporters in Oslo.
Thyberg’s resignation follows a period of instability in Sweden’s national security office, as just months earlier, his predecessor Henrik Landerholm had stepped down amid a scandal of his own. In January, Landerholm resigned after being investigated for allegedly mishandling classified documents, which were discovered in an unlocked safe at a hotel during a conference. Landerholm was later charged with careless handling of sensitive information, a case that could have compromised Sweden’s national security.
The chain of events has raised questions about the security vetting process for high-profile positions within Sweden’s national security infrastructure. Thyberg’s swift resignation has added to the mounting concerns regarding the effectiveness of such background checks.
The resignation underscores the mounting pressure on Sweden’s leadership to tighten its security clearance procedures, especially for those holding positions of national security importance.
As the country grapples with these controversies, the focus now shifts to how the government will address these systemic failures and what steps will be taken to ensure the integrity of future appointments to such sensitive roles.