Federal administration with rules for social media
The federal administration is to be provided with uniform rules for communicating with the public via social media, specifically regarding how to handle user comments. The Federal Council today submitted proposed amendments to the relevant ordinance for public comment.
Already in the "social media strategy" adopted in 2021, the Federal Council stipulated that there should be a uniform regulation on how to deal with the dialogue function, the Federal Council announced.
Many federal departments and offices are active on social media. The Federal Council writes that some profiles have public netiquettes for dealing with comments. Other departments have internal rules. The way hate speech, insults, advertising and posts are dealt with varies greatly.
It is now to be regulated, for example, which comments may be suppressed. According to the draft regulation, this is the case if there is a call for misdemeanors or crimes, hatred or violence. This also includes posts with defamatory, threatening, discriminatory or pornographic content or with depictions of violence.
According to the draft, anyone who encourages behavior that "seriously" endangers health or personal safety would also have to reckon with a suppression of the comment. In certain areas, false information could be immediately dangerous if believed, the Federal Council writes.
Furthermore, it should be possible to suppress machine-generated contributions. The authorities should be able to temporarily suppress contributions if an exceptionally large number are received. With regard to advertising, the Federal Council is discussing whether only commercial advertising or advertising in general - including political advertising - should be prohibited.
The Federal Council also wants to regulate the blocking of users. It proposes a block of up to two years after particularly serious or repeated violations. However, those affected must be able to demand information about the reason for and duration of the block and also the lifting of the block.
Profiles should only be allowed to be operated by administrative agencies on social media, where all people of legal age can access the content of the profiles. Federal agencies must still publish their information on other channels so that people who do not use social media can view it.
Freedom of expression at the center
On interactive profiles of administrative bodies, all adults should be able to place contributions and the administration should be able to react to them. Likewise, the administrative body must be able to hide, delete or suppress contributions from users. It must be possible to contact them via their profile.
According to the Federal Council, freedom of opinion and freedom of information are paramount when it comes to moderating comments on publications by authorities on social media. The amendments to the Government and Administration Organization Ordinance (RVOV) are in consultation until October 7, 2023. (sda)
