Tuo­sto postu­la­te (25.3237): Demas­cu­li­ni­ze algo­rith­ms. Demo­cra­tic and femi­nist urgency

Sub­mit­ted text

The Fede­ral Coun­cil is ins­truc­ted to draw up a Report in which it pres­ents pos­si­ble Mea­su­res against incre­a­sing mas­cu­li­nism, which is rein­forced by cer­tain algo­rith­ms, explains.

With the limit­less spread of social net­works, algo­rith­ms play a cen­tral role in the dis­se­mi­na­ti­on of ide­as and the struc­tu­ring of public deba­te. Howe­ver, they can also con­tri­bu­te to the rein­force­ment of harmful ideo­lo­gi­cal move­ments, such as mas­cu­li­nism, which calls pro­gress in gen­der equa­li­ty into question.

Justi­fi­ca­ti­on

Digi­tal plat­forms ampli­fy pola­ri­zing con­tent and give more visi­bi­li­ty to mas­cu­li­nist and anti-femi­nist dis­cour­ses. This phe­no­me­non fuels cogni­ti­ve dis­tor­ti­ons, rein­forces mis­in­for­ma­ti­on and under­mi­nes efforts to com­bat gen­der ine­qua­li­ty. Alt­hough mas­cu­li­nism is gai­ning ground in Switz­er­land, the Fede­ral Coun­cil sta­ted in its respon­se to the Postu­la­te 24.4208 on com­ba­ting mas­cu­li­nist move­ments, no data is coll­ec­ted. Howe­ver, seve­ral mea­su­res need to be taken to coun­ter­act this phenomenon:
A syste­ma­tic coll­ec­tion of data on the dis­se­mi­na­ti­on of mas­cu­li­nist con­tent would make it pos­si­ble to assess its impact and iden­ti­fy the dyna­mics favor­ed by the algorithms.

The intro­duc­tion of inde­pen­dent audits of auto­ma­ted systems would help to unco­ver poten­ti­al gen­der bias and ensu­re grea­ter diver­si­ty in the dis­se­mi­na­ti­on of information.

Regu­la­ti­on of digi­tal plat­forms could also be con­side­red. For exam­p­le, trans­pa­ren­cy requi­re­ments could be intro­du­ced for the func­tio­ning of algo­rith­ms and reme­di­al mea­su­res could be defi­ned if the­se plat­forms dis­pro­por­tio­na­te­ly favor anti-femi­nist or hateful content.

In addi­ti­on, sup­port­ing inde­pen­dent jour­na­lism and pro­mo­ting media liter­a­cy would streng­then citi­zens’ abili­ty to deci­pher algo­rith­mic bias and diver­si­fy their sources of information.

The­se mea­su­res would reaf­firm Switzerland’s com­mit­ment to equa­li­ty and social justi­ce and actively com­bat patri­ar­chal dyna­mics that are per­pe­tua­ted by digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies. Stron­ger con­trol of algo­rith­ms and stric­ter regu­la­ti­on of plat­forms could limit the spread of anti-femi­nist con­tent and ensu­re a fai­rer repre­sen­ta­ti­on of fema­le and femi­nist voices in the public sphere.

State­ment of the Fede­ral Coun­cil of 21.5.25

Algo­rith­ms on plat­forms and search engi­nes that sel­ect and prio­ri­ti­ze con­tent dif­fer­ent­ly for users work with the help of arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence. The use of arti­fi­ci­al intel­li­gence poses a chall­enge to uphol­ding the prin­ci­ple of equa­li­ty and non-dis­cri­mi­na­ti­on. For this rea­son, on Febru­ary 12, 2025, the Fede­ral Coun­cil ins­truc­ted the FDJP, in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with DETEC, the FDFA and other fede­ral agen­ci­es con­cer­ned, to deve­lop a Con­sul­ta­ti­on draft on the regu­la­ti­on of AI until the end of 2026 to be pre­pared. The con­sul­ta­ti­on draft imple­ments the Coun­cil of Europe’s AI Con­ven­ti­on whe­re legal mea­su­res are neces­sa­ry, name­ly in the are­as of trans­pa­ren­cy, data pro­tec­tion, non-dis­cri­mi­na­ti­on and supervision.

In addi­ti­on, the use of very lar­ge Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on plat­forms and very lar­ge search engi­nes have a signi­fi­cant impact on the for­ma­ti­on of public opi­ni­on and public dis­cour­se. For this rea­son, on April 5, 2023, the Fede­ral Coun­cil issued a man­da­te to prepa­re a con­sul­ta­ti­on draft on the regu­la­ti­on of the afo­re­men­tio­ned ser­vices and defi­ned the main thrusts. The con­sul­ta­ti­on draft on plat­form regu­la­ti­on has been drawn up. The Fede­ral Coun­cil has alre­a­dy dealt with it seve­ral times and will come to a decis­i­on at a later date fall.

Fur­ther­mo­re, the Fede­ral Coun­cil con­siders inde­pen­dent, diver­se media to be cen­tral to the for­ma­ti­on of public opi­ni­on. Within the scope of its com­pe­ten­ci­es, it advo­ca­tes good frame­work con­di­ti­ons, e.g. for the SRG and pri­va­te radio and tele­vi­si­on broad­ca­sters with a levy share. Access to high-qua­li­ty and diver­se media sources redu­ces depen­dence on algo­rith­mical­ly con­trol­led con­tent, which can some­ti­mes pro­mo­te one-sided repre­sen­ta­ti­ons. This makes the public deba­te more balan­ced and rai­ses awa­re­ness of the mecha­nisms by which algo­rith­ms can rein­force cer­tain ideo­lo­gies, ulti­m­ate­ly hel­ping to curb extre­mist move­ments and pro­mo­te a plu­ra­li­stic society.
In addi­ti­on, the par­lia­men­ta­ry initia­ti­ves 22,407 Bau­er “Dis­tri­bu­ti­on of the radio and tele­vi­si­on fee”, 22.417 Chas­sot “Sup­port mea­su­res in favor of elec­tro­nic media” and 22.423 Buil­lard-Mar­bach “For an inde­pen­dent press, the amounts for indi­rect fun­ding must be adju­sted” with addi­tio­nal mea­su­res to pro­mo­te media. In the area of media liter­a­cy, the natio­nal “Youth and Media” plat­form of the Fede­ral Social Insu­rance Office (FSIO) is com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing par­ents, tea­chers and care­gi­vers. The aim is to enable them to actively sup­port child­ren and young peo­p­le in their ever­y­day media lives and to make them awa­re of the oppor­tu­ni­ties and risks.

Due to the exi­sting mea­su­res in the media sec­tor and the ongo­ing work a report is the­r­e­fo­re not appro­pria­te at pre­sent.