Swiss confront rise in online fake news and hate speech

Half of those surveyed by the Federal Statistical Office had seen false or questionable content or information on the web or social media in the three months prior to the survey. That's an increase of 6 percentage points since 2021. © Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

More than 60% of 15 to 29-year-olds have been confronted with hate speech on the internet, according to surveys by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

Half of those surveyed had also seen false or questionable content or information on the web or social media in the three months prior to the survey, the FSO reported on Thursday. Compared to 2021, this corresponds to an increase of six percentage points.

Half of the people who discovered such content said they had checked the facts or the source. However, some 17% said they lacked the skills or knowledge to check whether the information was truthful, the report continued.

+ How does social media fuel fake news in Switzerland?

More than a third of respondents said they had come across hostile or derogatory messages towards certain groups or people online. Among social media users, this figure was just under half, the study found. These messages concern characteristics such as political or social opinions, country origin or religion.

Every two years, the FSO surveys the internet usage of people between the ages of 15 and 88 in 3,000 households. The surveys took place from April to July 2023.

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here. 

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].