Recent crisis situations have witnessed a growing number of loosely organised networks (LONs) that deliver welfare services and employ social media platforms to coordinate their actions. Focusing on the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ in Sweden, we explore the role of LONs in Swedish resilience policy. In the absence of standardised heuristics characteristic of established organizations, the LONs refer to social media for generating a common stance on the policy problem and their relation to the state. The study indicates challenges in governing LONs, showing that although a LON may become co-opted by the state, this co-optation may lead to its demise.