| Summary: | Crisis communication as a scientific field is mainly focused on organizations and profit driven companies. There is a lack of research about crisis communication for governments. There are few studies to draw conclusions from. The studies which have been made are done in 1986 after the chernobyl crisis, and after the tsunami crisis in Thailand year 2004. The world has changed since then and the way people communicate has changed as well. Social media is now the main way for people to communicate. Social media also allows people to access endless information at any time. The world has turned into an information society. In the year of 2020 Swedish authorities were facing a big crisis. The corona pandemic entered Sweden and ever since Swedish authorities have been dealing with crisis communication. The main goal is to provide the citizens of Sweden reliable information regarding the corona virus before anyone else does. The authorities themselves do not use social media to communicate. The citizens of Sweden do though. Social media is flooded by disinformation which can reach the Swedish citizens and cause the citizens to question the legitimacy of the authorities. The purpose of the present study is to investigate how Swedish government’s communication strategies have been received by users of discussion groups on Facebook. The study draws upon primary data collected from ten interviews conducted with members of selected Facebook groups that shows a critical view towards Swedish authorities. The results were analyzed using theories such as framing theory, legitimacy theory and the SMCC- framework. The results indicate that the users have a growing distrust towards Swedish authorities
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