Flashback originates from the local fanzine "Dead or Alive" founded and published in February 25th 1983 by the then fourteen years 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 c
ompany 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 Messageboards, all posts on Swedish Internet discussionboards 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, and was now based in England, and owned by Flashback Enterprises Ltd. Since 2010 it is based in USA and owned by Flashback International Inc. Flashback has 339 different sub forums ranging from "Baking, bread and cookies" and "Lifestyle", to the more controversial forums such as "Drugs" and "Pe******ia". Flashback forum has as of January 4, 2013 about 723000 members who have posted more than 39 million posts, making it the largest forum in Sweden.
