Dutch PM Jetten pressing charges weekly over persistent anti-gay abuse, threats
Just a few days into his run as prime minister, Rob Jetten said after a Cabinet meeting on Friday that he presses charges on a weekly basis because of hate speech aimed at the openly gay politician. Speaking at his first regular weekly press conference as prime minister, he stated that he faces daily threats related to his sexual orientation.
“I have been dealing with hateful comments for ten years, but I refuse to retreat,” the D66 leader said. He explained that he consciously keeps sharing aspects of his personal life online. “I want to make clear that I will not let hatred intimidate me.”
Jetten said he has developed a thick skin, but noted that many people face such hateful remarks every day. “I want to confront people with the reality that attacking someone because of their sexual orientation seems to have become normalized in the Netherlands.”
Within two days of taking office on Monday, over 200 replies to posts published on the official X account for the office of the prime minister have been characterized as anti-homosexual slurs or hate speech, according to a review by NRC. The newspaper only examined the @MinPres account on the social media platform, and not Jetten’s own account.
The posts include images of Jetten generated with artificial intelligence, and statements saying that a gay man should not be allowed to run the Dutch government. NRC analyzed more than 5,000 replies to posts on the MinPres account between Monday and Wednesday. More than 180 unique accounts were used to post over 200 forms of slurs, stereotypes, and insults related to Jetten being a homosexual man.
Earlier this week, AD found that the latest version of Grok AI, a sister project from X owner Elon Musk, was able to generate videos of Dutch parliamentarians performing Nazi salutes, and a Nazi version of Donald Duck insulting a Jewish girl. The AI service has come under fire for creating sexually-explicit images of real children, and is expected to be the target of a lawsuit in the Netherlands for not complying with Dutch and European laws to protect people from being bullied, humiliated, and sexually harassed.
Once Jetten was sworn in by King Willem-Alexander, the name associated with the profile was changed from the previous prime minister, Dick Schoof. The account was launched more than 15 years ago when the social media service was still called Twitter.
The prime minister also discussed the social media usage of his ministers, stating that they should be more mindful about what they share online. His comments followed backlash over an Instagram post by fellow party member and minister Hans Vijlbrief. Under the post featuring several photos of himself with other D66 cabinet members, Vijlbrief had added the song Pause by Milolaathetlukken. The lyric “bitches willen met me naar bed” (“bitches want to go to bed with me”) sparked controversy.
