New law on communication platforms and search engines: Start of consultation proceedings
Berna, 29.10.2025 — The Federal Council wants to strengthen the rights of users in the digital space and oblige very large online platforms and search engines to be more fair and transparent. A new law is to define core rules for services such as Facebook, X, TikTok or Google in law. The Federal Council decided this at its meeting on 29 October 2025. Interested parties have until 16 February 2026 to submit their views.
Communication platforms and search engines are an important part of the communication infrastructure. They are operated by a handful of internationally active companies such as Alphabet (Google, YouTube, among others), Meta (Facebook, Instagram), TikTok and X according to their own privately defined and enforced rules. These platforms offer advantages such as a broad range of publicly visible information and views. However, they are also used to spread unlawful content and can remove user content according to indiscernible rules. This can impair public communication and the formation of citizens' opinions in Switzerland. Under the new law, the Federal Council wants to counteract these negative influences and at the same time strengthen the rights of users.
The law is intended to oblige large communication platforms to provide users with a procedure through which they can easily report specific suspected unlawful content, depictions of violence and threatening language. The offences that can be reported include wilful defamation (Art. 174 of the Swiss Criminal Code), insult (Art. 177 of the Swiss Criminal Code) or discrimination and incitement to hatred (Art. 261bis of the Swiss Criminal Code). The communication platform operators would also be required to inform users when removing content or blocking accounts and explain their grounds for doing so. They must also establish an internal complaints procedure and participate in out-of-court dispute resolution in the event of disputes.
Transparency requirements are also envisaged with regard to the declaration and targeting of advertising and the use of recommendation systems. In addition, the services affected by the law must set up a publicly accessible advertising archive and grant the authorities and researchers access to their data. Very large communication platforms and search engines are also to be obliged to designate a legal representative in Switzerland if the company's registered office is abroad. This strengthens enforcement of the law against providers that do not have offices in Switzerland.
The addressees of the consultation are invited to comment on the bill by 16 February 2026. They are also asked to comment on specific questions regarding the protection of minors and the notification procedure.
Regulation of the largest services
The law is limited to very large communication platforms and search engines, as these have a strong influence on public debate and opinion-forming due to their reach. Services that are used by an average of 10 per cent of the permanent Swiss resident population every month (i.e. currently around 900,000 users) are considered very large.
Further information
Consultations and hearings
(Overview of ongoing consultations on the OFCOM website)
Federal Council seeks to regulate large communication platforms
(Press release of 5 April 2023)