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The Swiss Armed Forces Nettiquette

Netiquette rules for the social media channels of the Swiss Armed Forces

Dear social media user

Thank you for visiting one of the Swiss Armed Forces’ official social media channels. We invite you to learn more about the Swiss Armed Forces and are happy to communicate with you. It is our aim to answer any questions you may have as clearly and directly as possible. We appreciate you taking the time to contribute to our channel and prefer not to have to delete any of the content you post.

We promote:

  • respectful, open and friendly comments;
  • tolerance – even when you don’t agree with someone else’s opinion;
  • useful and inspiring content.

We do not tolerate texts, images, videos or actions that:

  • are offensive, obscene, pornographic or threatening, that incite violence or are discriminatory, racist, sexist, insulting, degrading, misleading or illegal;
  • violate the rights of others (including copyright laws and privacy rights);
  • advertise products, whether directly or indirectly;
  • make implicit accusations or that express (personal) suspicions that cannot be confirmed.

Please note that:

  • all quotes require sources;
  • copyright and privacy rights must be respected when posting images/screenshots;
  • for privacy reasons, no personal information should be posted;
  • social media channels cannot be used to conduct official business relating to your military service. Requests for leave, complaints and the like must be dealt with through official channels.

Our editorial team regularly reviews content Monday through Friday, 8am to 6pm, in order to respond to enquiries as quickly as possible, but also to make sure that the rules stated above are being observed. We reserve the right to delete any content that violates these rules and, if it happens repeatedly, to ban the author from the community.

We enjoy interacting with the community and are doing our best to respond to your posts as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The Swiss Armed Forces are set up as a militia system in which, in principle, all male citizens must serve. If you do not have a valid Swiss passport, you cannot serve in Switzerland’s military.

Female citizens can serve in the Swiss Armed Forces on a voluntary basis.

Swiss citizens living abroad are exempt from being recruited for and serving in the military during peacetime, as long as they reside abroad. However, certain exceptions apply to individuals living near the Swiss border. Under certain circumstances and following specific procedures, Swiss citizens living abroad can voluntarily undergo recruitment, basic military training and military training programmes in Switzerland.

If a male Swiss citizen who has been living abroad returns to Switzerland, depending on his age and ability, he may be required to serve in the Swiss Armed Forces as a conscript.

Many large-scale civilian events that are of national or international importance would not be possible if not for the support of the military. The Ordinance on Support for Civilian or Off-duty Activities with Military Resources (MCSO) forms the legal basis.

While Romansh is one of Switzerland’s four national languages, it is only a semi-official language.

The Federal Chancellery’s website states the following:

The federal offices and departments identify important publications for which a Romansh version would be useful.

In order for us to translate online reports and posts into Romansh, we would first need to create the necessary conditions and tools to carry out multilingual work in our political offices, in the justice area and in the administration, and would need to promote multilingualism in education. The effort required for us to do this would far outweigh the benefits.