Online hate speech targets black and Jewish people
A dedicated website launched in November 2021 makes it easier to report racist hate speech online.
Martin Ruetschi
More than 160 pieces of racist content have been flagged via a new dedicated reporting platform, with black and Jewish people particularly targeted, the Federal Commission against Racism (FCR) said on Tuesday.
Between the end of November 2021 and the end of November 2022, 163 racist comments were reported, it said in a press releaseExternal link. This is the FCR’s first evaluation of the www.reportonlineracism.chExternal link website, which went online in November 2021.
The FCR said it classifies content according to the groups of people affected and makes an initial assessment of its criminal relevance. Xenophobic content that is not targeted at a specific origin or religion is the biggest category, reported 39 times. Hate comments against black people (38) and messages with anti-Semitic content (23) come in second and third place. Those targeting asylum seekers and refugees were also frequent (21).
The most frequently reported content was in comment columns of online media (59), followed by Facebook (41) and Twitter (23). There was almost no problematic content reported on Instagram, YouTube or TikTok. The other platforms reported were blogs, forums and other websites.
The FCR said it had filed eight criminal complaints to the competent authorities as a result of these complaints. In the other cases, it said either there was no link with Switzerland, or the account where the comments were made had been deleted in the meantime, or the offence could only be prosecuted on the basis of a complaint by the persons concerned (e.g. for defamation).
These figures show that dissemination of hate speech online is far from marginal and must be taken seriously, the FCR concludes. In view of positive feedback from civil society and experts, it has decided to extend the duration of this pilot project. The reporting platform was initially planned for one year.
Related Stories
Popular Stories
More
International Geneva
A Geneva-based global health foundation came close to ‘collapse’. Where were regulators?
Swiss-EU treaties: signatures handed in for Kompass initiative
This content was published on
The committee behind the Compass Initiative submitted the signatures it had collected to the Federal Chancellery on Friday.
This content was published on
Esther Grether has died aged 89. Considered one of Switzerland’s leading entrepreneurs, the owner of the Basel-based Doetsch Grether Group was also a major shareholder in the Swatch Group and an art collector.
This content was published on
The flag of the Swiss Wrestling Federation has been received at the start of the Swiss Wrestling and Alpine Festival in Mollis, canton Glarus.
Figurine heads in Zurich school not considered discriminatory
This content was published on
The 16 carved figurine heads in the auditorium of the Hirschengraben school building in Zurich are not discriminatory, according to an independent expert report.
Swiss political parties report income of CHF22.4 million for 2024
This content was published on
Ten parties reported income totalling CHF22.4 million for 2024, less than in the 2023 election year. The reports are based on the regulations for transparency in political financing.
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
Switzerland defends racism record at UN rights council
This content was published on
The Swiss Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council has said that a report criticising structural racism in the country included “misunderstandings”.
Why Switzerland should be doing more to fight racism
This content was published on
The UN has pointed its finger at a lack of clear Swiss legislation to tackle racism as well as the lack of enough accessible recourse for victims.
Swiss launch platform to report racist speech online
This content was published on
Switzerland has a new platform for reporting racist hate speech on the Internet, the Federal Commission against Racism (FCR) has announced.
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.