Motion to ban X in Swiss parliament defeated

Elon Musk. Keystone-SDA

The Swiss Federal Assembly – the two chambers of parliament – may continue to use Elon Musk’s social media platform X as a communication channel. A motion to ban its use by the Parliamentary Services was defeated in the House of Representatives on Friday.

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The issue stems from a motion tabled by Min Li Marti from the left-wing Social Democratic Party. Speaking in the House of Representatives, she cited news headlines in which X, formerly known as Twitter, had been used to call for demonstrations and to incite hatred and hate speech – for example, during anti-immigration protests in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Since the platform was taken over by Musk in 2022, X has changed significantly, Marti said. The posts have become more radical. Disinformation is widespread. In her view, Musk wants to stir up the “mob” in this way. “These cases are not accidents, but part of the design,” said Marti.

+ Swiss public broadcasters withdraw from X/Twitter

The situation has worsened further, she said, with the introduction of the AI chatbot Grok, which delivers unrestrained sexist, violent, fake or offensive content. By remaining on the platform, the Federal Assembly legitimises X and contributes to the increased relevance and visibility of all content, according to Marti. “It is also about the kind of culture of debate that we stand for,” she said.

+ Swiss government minister fights for ‘decency’ against Grok

“At present, there is no comparable alternative that offers such a wide reach,” countered Roland Rino Büchel from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party on behalf of the Office of the House of Representatives. However, the Parliamentary Services were monitoring developments on an ongoing basis. Furthermore, the challenges mentioned by the motion’s sponsor also arose on other social media platforms, he said. An isolated withdrawal from X would therefore not resolve these fundamental problems of communication in the digital sphere, according to Büchel.

The majority of the House of Representatives shared this view: it voted 119 to 69, with 11 abstentions, in favour of continuing the Federal Assembly’s X accounts.

The Parliamentary Services have been using X since 2015 as a communication channel for the committees, to provide information on parliamentary diplomacy and to enable the House of Representatives presidiums to respond to important events. The government and numerous other political parties, as well as the parliaments of Austria, Italy and France, and the Council of Europe, also use X.

Translated from German, sub-edited by ts