In the first case of its kind in Switzerland, a young woman has been fined for insulting someone on facebook.
This content was published on
1 minute
swissinfo.ch and agencies
The free newspaper “20 Minuten” reported on Monday that the 19-year-old from the eastern city of St Gallen had been a member of a group opposing a move to ban weekend concerts at the KuGL cultural centre which went on until 5 in the morning.
She had referred to a man who wanted the concerts banned as a “Seckel” – roughly equivalent to “idiot” – and called him a “truurige Mensch”, or “sad”.
He lodged a complaint, and the magistrate agreed that the words constituted an insult. The woman was sentenced to a fine of SFr30 ($31) a day for seven days suspended for two years, plus an unsuspended fine of SFr100.
However, the magistrate told the Swiss news agency that the verdict had not yet come into force.
The defendant described the verdict as “excessive”. However, it has been welcomed by experts concerned about “cyber insults”.
“This verdict is a milestone, and will be an important signal for both victims and perpetrators,” commented parliamentarian Barbara Schmid-Federer, of the centre-right Christian Democratic Party.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
Tracking scammers, hackers and phishers
This content was published on
Swiss government officials are confronted every day with the reality of illegal Web use, including hardcore pornography, racism, the spread of harmful computer viruses and the misuse of personal data. In October hackers targeted the foreign ministry. More recently there have been reports of attacks on Swiss websites featuring postings by people defending Islam, following…
This content was published on
According to the government’s cyber crime unit, this is the first example of a “revenge” attack by internet criminals against a Swiss individual. Switzerland is currently the focus of increasing waves of attacks by spammers. Twenty-one-year-old computer specialist Roman Hüssy from Wallisellen, canton Zurich, got the fright of his life last Tuesday when he was…
This content was published on
Claiming two billion page views per day, Zug-based RapidShare specialises in the distribution of digital media and stakes its claim as the world’s first user-friendly way to transfer big files over the internet. The catch? Content and copyright. A search on one of many unofficial sites that scour files posted to the world’s 12th most…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.