Online Hate Speech Targets Black And Jewish People


(MENAFN- Swissinfo) 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. This content was published on March 21, 2023 March 21, 2023 minutes Keystone-SDA/jc

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 website, which went online in November 2021.

+ read more about the online reporting platform

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.


More

More

debunked: what we thought was true about switzerland

tell friends you're visiting switzerland and inevitably, some reactions will be full of clichés.

Articles in this story

  • debunked: what we thought was true about switzerland

MENAFN21032023000210011054ID1105831143


Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.