[citation needed] The newspaper was founded by Lars Johan Hierta in December 1830 under the name of Aftonbladet i Stockholm[1][2][3] during the modernization of Sweden.

However, Hierta circumvented the bans by constantly reviving the paper under slightly modified names, as, legally speaking, a new publication.

The owners of Aftonbladet are the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) which bought it in the 1950s[5] and Norwegian media group Schibsted, which acquired its share in the paper in the late 1990s.

[9] The paper reported news and also criticised the new Swedish king Charles XIV John.

Heavily influenced by pro-German staff members, the newspaper supported Germany during World War II.

By the early 1990s Aftonbladet had run into economic problems, and many had begun to question the competence of the trade union movement as a media owner.

In 2005 Aftonbladet started a Web portal for business news as a joint venture with Svenska Dagbladet.

[18] However, Aftonbladet has drawn more attention for the strident left-wing stance and controversial publications of its cultural section.

[19][20][21][22][23][24] Linderborg was also criticized over a series of articles relating to Russia, and there have been persistent allegations that the cultural section has promoted pro-Moscow narratives, including on the Russo-Ukrainian War.

It has been published on the World Wide Web since 25 August 1994, and the main news service is free.