"It's gone on for too long": Elderly Swedish man orders the Internet to shut down

Bo Bergman demanded in a letter that the Internet be returned 'to the military department...before everything crumbles'

Bo Bergman has struggled to get to grips with the Internet (Rex Features)

A cranky Swedish senior has become an unwitting Internet celebrity after a letter he sent to his local newspaper demanding the Internet to be "shut down" went viral.

Bo Bergman, 73, who lives a technology-free life in the tiny village of Simlångsdalen, sent his ambitious requests to the newspaper Hallands-Posten last week.

Expressing his distaste for everything online, he wrote: “My proposal: Shut down the Internet! 'You can't, it's gone on for too long,' you'll all surely answer. No!"

Bergman also demanded that officials “return the Internet to the military department ... before everything crumbles. Destroy it while it's there.”

Johan Hammerby, who runs the letters section of the paper, told the The Local that the piece had received over 30,000 views since being published on Thursday, and that it had become their most popular piece online.

“It's been shared on Facebook and retweeted so much,” he said. “Readers seem to think he's just a funny old man who doesn't know what he's talking about. They point out that he doesn't have any good argument, but they love the way he writes.

“The funniest thing is that he's an Internet celebrity and he doesn't even know it.”

After being told his letter had gone viral, Bergman said he was surprised, but that he still stood by what he wrote.

“Like a worm in an apple, the Internet eats us from within and takes over,” he said.