Flashback Media Group


Flashback Media Group AB is a Swedish media company that publishes magazines, books, websites and also started Sweden's biggest discussion forum in May 2000.

History

Flashback originates from the local fanzine Dead or Alive founded and published on 25 February 1983 by then 14-year-old Jan Axelsson in Norrköping. It developed into multiple projects focusing on different aspects of subcultures; mainly punk, and changed its name to Flashback in February 1993.
Flashback's website was first published in June 1995 as a big supporter of copyleft. The company publishes "Scandinavia's biggest neutral newsletter" with over 120,000 subscribers on a monthly basis. The proclaimed goal is to express underground opinions. The website has on multiple occasions been shut down by authorities and has been fined hundreds of thousands of SEK.
After a trial in 2002 it became illegal for Flashback to run a discussion forum in Sweden, as according to the Swedish 1998 Law of Responsibility Regarding Electronic Message boards, all posts on Swedish Internet discussion boards need to be reviewed by an appointed person who can be prosecuted in case there is a breach of the press law. Flashback Media Group AB and Jan Axelsson each were fined 400,000 SEK on probation and were forced to pay the trial costs of 250,000 SEK. Flashback closed down the forum in 2002. It opened again in 2003. Between 2003 and 2010 it was based in England and owned by Flashback Enterprises Ltd. Since 2010 it is based in New York, USA and it is owned by Flashback International Inc.
Flashback Forum has 339 different sub forums ranging from "Baking, bread and cookies", "Politics" and "Lifestyle", to the more controversial forums such as "Integration and Immigration", "Drugs", and "Pedophilia". As of 6 August 2016, the forum has about 1 046 000 members who have posted more than 54 million posts, making it the largest forum in Scandinavia.
In October 2010 Flashback Media Group AB started Travel Forum, a travel website with articles, guides, reviews and discussions of travel-related content. Travel Forum is today one of the major travel sites in Sweden.
Flashback Media Group also own a Swedish erotic literature site.