Amherd postu­la­te (11.3912): Legal basis for social media
Depre­cia­ted (2.6.2014) in con­nec­tion with the dis­cus­sion of item 14.006.

See the Report of the Fede­ral Coun­cil.

Sub­mit­ted text

The Fede­ral Coun­cil is ins­truc­ted to sub­mit a report on the legal situa­ti­on with regard to social media, pro­vi­ding ans­wers to the fol­lo­wing que­sti­ons in particular:

- What is the cur­rent legal situa­ti­on in Switz­er­land and inter­na­tio­nal­ly with regard to social media?

- Whe­re are the­re gaps in the law?

- How can they be closed?

- How does the Fede­ral Coun­cil view the crea­ti­on of a sepa­ra­te social media law that takes into account the spe­cial fea­tures of the­se new com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on platforms?

Justi­fi­ca­ti­on

Social media are brin­ging about a new dimen­si­on in com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on and media use that threa­tens to under­mi­ne the enforce­ment of natio­nal laws and fun­da­men­tal rights. This applies in par­ti­cu­lar to rules on data pro­tec­tion and against racism or the pro­tec­tion of pri­va­cy in gene­ral. The pace of deve­lo­p­ment is rapid, and the tech­ni­cal pos­si­bi­li­ties are con­stant­ly chan­ging. Howe­ver, the legal foun­da­ti­ons are not geared to this. It may be neces­sa­ry to coun­ter this deve­lo­p­ment with a regu­la­ti­on regar­ding social media. The spe­cial fea­tures of radio and tele­vi­si­on have also been taken into account by a sepa­ra­te law, the RTVG.

State­ment of the Fede­ral Council

The Fede­ral Coun­cil is awa­re of the incre­a­sing importance of the new phe­no­me­non of social media for socie­ty. More and more users are no lon­ger limi­ting them­sel­ves to the con­su­mer role, but are offe­ring their own con­tent on social media plat­forms. Incre­a­sing­ly, indi­vi­du­al and mass com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on, which pre­vious­ly ten­ded to be regu­la­ted sepa­ra­te­ly, are mixing. Among other things, the que­sti­on ari­ses as to whe­ther exi­sting law (par­ti­cu­lar­ly in the DPA, CC, SCC and URG) ade­qua­te­ly cap­tures the pro­blems and suf­fi­ci­ent­ly cla­ri­fi­es the respon­si­bi­li­ties of tho­se invol­ved. Spe­ci­fic pro­blem are­as are, for exam­p­le, the pro­tec­tion of minors and the increa­sed dama­ge poten­ti­al of pri­va­te publi­ca­ti­ons that can be acce­s­sed world­wi­de and are not writ­ten (and con­trol­led) accor­ding to jour­na­li­stic due dili­gence. Other issues include the pro­tec­tion of over­bur­den­ed users from unwan­ted use of their data and the often ina­de­qua­te abili­ty of users to trans­fer their data from one social media plat­form to ano­ther. Ano­ther cen­tral pro­blem in con­nec­tion with social media is the enforce­ment of appli­ca­ble law, becau­se the ope­ra­tors of social media plat­forms often ope­ra­te inter­na­tio­nal­ly, and natio­nal legis­la­ti­on the­r­e­fo­re rea­ches its limits.