Sweden To Stephen Colbert: Sorry, Our Twitter Can Be Run By Swedes Only

After campaigning on "The Colbert Report" to allow the country of Sweden to let him control their country's Twitter account, Sweden has finally given Stephen Colbert an answer: Thanks, but no thanks.

The Nordic country made headlines recently for allowing private citizens to control the official country's official Twitter account, @sweden, for a week at a time. The results weren't always so good, such as when 27-year-old Sonja Abrahamsson took over the account and attracted attention with bizarre comments about Jews.

That inspired Colbert to launch a movement to allow the country to let him take over the account, using the Twitter hashtag #artificialswedener. But despite his best intentions, representatives released a statement confirming that the account is for Swedes, by Swedes.

In a statement to the English-language Swedish news outlet The Local, they said:

"Although we appreciate that having Colbert as a Curator of Sweden would be meaningful in terms of global attention to this initiative, VisitSweden and the Swedish Institute have decided to – after thorough consideration - decline his generous offer. The account is - at the current time - first and foremost a way for us to hand over the voice of Sweden to the Swedes."

Johannes Karlsson, the head of PR and Social Media at Visit Sweden, emphasized that they did not take the request lightly. "We’ve had real flesh and blood meetings about the whole thing for days now, and even though it’s a no, we hope to maintain good relations with Mr. Colbert and his many fans," Karlsson said.

This marks only the latest time Colbert has forced real-world politicians and bureaucrats to determine his eligibility for a public position. Check out our timeline of Colbert's foray into the 2012 presidential election here.

(h/t THR)