Tobias Thyberg, Sweden’s former national security advisor, resigned from his new role last week after explicit photos of him taken from the LGBTQ dating app Grindr were anonymously sent to the Swedish government. 

Thyberg quit only hours after taking up the new role on Thursday, submitting his resignation early on Friday morning. 

The Swedish government claimed the former official had failed to disclose the information during routine background checks.

"These are old pictures from an account I previously had on the dating site Grindr. I should have informed about this, but I did not," he told the newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

Grindr app is seen on a mobile phone in this photo illustration taken in Shanghai, China March 28, 2019. (credit: REUTERS/Aly Song/Illustration)
Grindr app is seen on a mobile phone in this photo illustration taken in Shanghai, China March 28, 2019. (credit: REUTERS/Aly Song/Illustration)
The government received the explicit photos from an anonymous sender, Swedish newspaper Expressen reported. "It is a systemic failure that this kind of information has not been brought forward," Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters in Oslo.

Security issues in Sweden 

Thyberg’s predecessor, Henrik Landerholm, stepped down from the role months earlier after he was charged with careless handling of the country’s secrets, BBC News reported. Swedish media reported that he had previously left a mobile phone at the Hungarian embassy and a notebook at a radio station. 

While Landerhold has stated he does not believe himself guilty, prosecutors claimed he mishandled "information relating to conditions of a secret nature and whose disclosure to a foreign power could cause harm to Sweden's security."