“The number of reports have increased dramatically the past ten years,” says Magnus Lindgren, secretary general at Tryggare Sverige, a politically and religious independent non-governmental organization.

What happens online doesn’t much differ from the real world.

“For the person exposed to threats through social media, the fear, sense of insecurity and despair is just as great as if the threat had been made eye to eye or on the phone,” Lindgren continues. But many threats are never reported to police, he explains, because many don’t realize they’ve been exposed to a threat.