Switzerland: who to turn to if the attack starts on Telegram

In short

For immediate danger: 117. For free, confidential advice: victim support, 142.

You file the report with the cantonal police or the public prosecutor’s office of your canton.

Many of these crimes are prosecuted only on a criminal complaint, as a rule within 3 months of the day you learn who the perpetrator is.

In Switzerland the European Digital Services Act does not apply: today the main route is the criminal one.

The police usually act only if someone reports. That is why your report matters.

People who live in Switzerland and are targeted by Telegram groups or channels have tools that are partly different from those in European Union countries. This guide sums up who to turn to.

1. Right now: safety and support

Immediate danger: call 117.
Victim support: 142 puts you in touch with the counselling centre of your canton. Counselling is free and confidential, even anonymous, and also applies to relatives. In some cases victim support can help towards lawyer and therapy costs.
Listening service: 143 (La Main Tendue, “Die Dargebotene Hand”) answers day and night.

All contacts are in Who can help you.

2. Preserve the evidence

Before reporting or blocking, save the links of the messages, the names and IDs of the accounts, the date and time. We explain how in How to preserve evidence of a shaming campaign on Telegram.

3. Report and criminal complaint

You can go to a cantonal police station or directly to the public prosecutor’s office of your canton. Some cantons, such as Zurich, also offer online appointments for certain reports; for serious threats it is better to go in person.

In Switzerland many of the crimes typical of these campaigns are prosecuted only if the victim files a criminal complaint (in German Strafantrag). The general deadline is 3 months from the day you learn who the perpetrator is. A reply from the Ticino Council of State in December 2025 recalls it: without a complaint, no investigation starts on its own. Have the deadline confirmed by a lawyer or by the victim support centre.

A 2024 journalistic survey of cantonal police forces showed that almost none looks for groups of this kind on its own: they act when a report arrives.

4. Which crimes may apply

Depending on what is happening to you, the Swiss Criminal Code provides, among others:

What is happening	Article
Accusations and insults that damage your reputation	Art. 173 (defamation), 174 (slander), 177 (insult)
Threats	Art. 180
Persistent harassment or threats that limit your life	Art. 181b (stalking, since 2026)
Harassing messages and calls	Art. 179septies
Someone uses your identity	Art. 179decies
Sexual content forwarded without consent	Art. 197a

For deepfakes there is not yet a specific crime: depending on the case, the use of someone else’s identity, crimes against honour or the forwarding of intimate content may apply. Parliament has discussed a proposal to ban them explicitly.

5. Differences with the European Union

The Digital Services Act does not apply. For now there are no complaint procedures against platforms like the European ones. The Federal Council put out for consultation, until February 2026, a law on communication platforms, with reporting, complaints and a legal representative in Switzerland.
Requests to Telegram go through the authorities. Since 2024 Telegram hands over the IP address and phone number on a valid order. According to transparency data collected by an independent archive, for Switzerland the requests fulfilled went from zero to 32 requests covering 77 users in the last quarter of 2024, and to 55 requests covering 116 users in the first quarter of 2026.
Switzerland takes part in international operations: for example in Europol projects against violent online networks, and some measures of Italian investigations have been carried out by cantonal police forces.

6. Protect your data

Ask your municipality to block the communication of your data to third parties (Datensperre): the rules vary from municipality to municipality, ask the residents’ registration office.
For personal data published online you can turn to the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.
For an attacked website you can report to the Federal Office for Cybersecurity (FOCS), which however does not receive criminal complaints.

The full guide is on the page Protect yourself.

What to do now

Danger: 117. Support: 142.
Save the evidence.
File the criminal complaint within the deadlines, with the cantonal police or the public prosecutor’s office.
Ask your municipality to block your data.
If other people are suffering the same treatment, write to us: linking cases helps.

Updated 14 October 2026. General information, not legal advice. Procedures may vary from canton to canton.