‘It does feel like an intimidation campaign’: why is US tech giant Palantir suing a small Swiss magazine?

## Summary
An investigation by journalists working with Republik magazine may have struck a nerve by suggesting the company has failed in Switzerland I t was over beers on an autumn evening in Zurich in 2024 that a group of journalists with an independent Swiss research collective began to discuss investigating Palantir , one of the world’s biggest tech companies. Palantir has sought only the publication of a concise and proportionate right of reply to correct material inaccuracies.” View image in fullscreen The team of WAV and Republik journalists are awarded the Prix Transparence 2025 by the Swiss FOIA Association for their work. It lists numerous disagreements with Republik’s article, including that it implies Palantir’s technology is expensive, and that it discusses a confidential Swiss army report that the army itself had not shared with Palantir. “Palantir has the right to sue for a right of reply, if they wish to do so,” says Marguerite Meyer, a journalist who works with WAV. “However, we adhered to all journalistic standards, and had a thorough factcheck done. But Republik and WAV’s work may have struck a nerve. “It’s the first time [anyone] has published a story about Palantir that has a failure narrative,” says Adrienne Fichter, a tech journalist with Republik. “They didn’t get through and they were not good enough for Switzerland … That’s why they’re going for us, that’s why they’re suing us, they want to fight this narrative.” Meyer says: “I think Palantir doesn’t really mind moral criticism.

## Article Content
Palantir’s logo is displayed during the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The article published in December suggests the company has failed to gain a more permanent foothold in the country.
Photograph: Laurent Hou/Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty Images
View image in fullscreen
Palantir’s logo is displayed during the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The article published in December suggests the company has failed to gain a more permanent foothold in the country.
Photograph: Laurent Hou/Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty Images
‘It does feel like an intimidation campaign’: why is US tech giant Palantir suing a small Swiss magazine?
An investigation by journalists working with Republik magazine may have struck a nerve by suggesting the company has failed in Switzerland
I
t was over beers on an autumn evening in Zurich in 2024 that a group of journalists with an independent Swiss research collective began to discuss investigating
Palantir
, one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Three years earlier, Palantir had advertised that it was setting up a “European hub” in the Swiss municipality of Altendorf, a sleepy town of roughly 7,000 people on the shores of Lake Zurich.
Press coverage of the move was positive: a Swiss national newspaper said the canton of Schwyz had “
pulled off a coup
” by landing a US tech company. But the journalists in the collective, WAV, were not so sure. They wondered what Swiss authorities were doing with Palantir.
WAV approached a small Swiss reader-funded magazine, Republik, to collaborate on a story. One year and 59 freedom of information requests later, their
investigation
, which alleged that Palantir had persistently courted Switzerland but had been rejected, made waves across Europe – prompting debate in Germany and
comment from UK politicians
.
Palantir was not happy. The journalists say they had interviewed company executives and sent a full list of questions before publication, but that the company demanded they print a detailed rebuttal, with a list of points that the journalists say went well beyond the scope of their investigation. When the magazine refused, Palantir filed a lawsuit in a Swiss commercial court demanding that it do so.
In a statement, Palantir told the Guardian that Swiss law recognised the right of reply “to provide the public with balanced information”. It says the details it sought to rebut are “anything but extraneous to their findings. The misstatements speak to material falsehoods about Palantir’s business, technology and operations. Palantir has sought only the publication of a concise and proportionate right of reply to correct material inaccuracies.”
View image in fullscreen
The team of WAV and Republik journalists are awarded the Prix Transparence 2025 by the Swiss FOIA Association for their work. From left: Adrienne Fichter, Balz Oertli, Marguerite Meyer, Jennifer Steiner, and Lorenz Naegeli.
Photograph: Julia Schwamborn/öffentlichkeitsgesetz.ch
In a blogpost, the company
says the article paints
a “false and misleading narrative” about Palantir and “sets back important discourse on European software modernisation”. It lists numerous disagreements with Republik’s article, including that it implies Palantir’s technology is expensive, and that it discusses a confidential Swiss army report that the army itself had not shared with Palantir.
“Palantir has the right to sue for a right of reply, if they wish to do so,” says Marguerite Meyer, a journalist who works with WAV. “However, we adhered to all journalistic standards, and had a thorough factcheck done. They are suing for an absurd list of changes. It does feel like an intimidation campaign.”
B
y the time the journalists started their investigation, Palantir had been – at least, reportedly – based in
Switzerland
for nearly four years. It was unclear what the company had achieved during this time: no government contracts had been reported.
The journalists wondered why this was: they wanted to dig into “this invisible sphere of exchange and negotiation, meetings, government and companies”, says Lorenz Naegeli, who works with WAV.
“We tried to find out, is there any kind of government agency that uses this software? I mean, they are in Switzerland, eventually some government official maybe thought they could use this Palantir,” says Balz Oertli, who is also with WAV.
Their investigation, published in December, gave an account of Palantir’s years-long efforts to try to sell itself to the Swiss government. It found the company had pitched itself to Switzerland’s chancellor during the Covid-19 pandemic to help with data tracking; approached the Swiss army; and met Switzerland’s then finance minister, Ueli Maurer.
View image in fullscreen
Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, with the then Swiss federal president, Alain Berset, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 2018.
Photograph: Peter Klaunzer/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“Palantir repeatedly contacted different government agencies thr

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- Photograph: Julia Schwamborn/öffentlichkeitsgesetz.ch In a blogpost, the company says the article paints a “false and misleading narrative” about Palantir and “sets back important discourse on European software modernisation”.
- Palantir says the Swiss government had not been a significant focus for its regional business growth.

### Areas for Consideration
- It was unclear what the company had achieved during this time: no government contracts had been reported.
- But Republik and WAV’s work may have struck a nerve. “It’s the first time [anyone] has published a story about Palantir that has a failure narrative,” says Adrienne Fichter, a tech journalist with Republik. “They didn’t get through and they were not good enough for Switzerland … That’s why they’re going for us, that’s why they’re suing us, they want to fight this narrative.” Meyer says: “I think Palantir doesn’t really mind moral criticism.
- But what our reporting shows is a bit of a failure to sell their products – I believe they really don’t like that.” Palantir’s blogpost says the article “takes what any normal business would describe as routine market exploration – approximately nine meetings over seven years – and portrays them as an ‘aggressive’ and inherently nefarious sales campaign”.

### Implications
- An investigation by journalists working with Republik magazine may have struck a nerve by suggesting the company has failed in Switzerland I t was over beers on an autumn evening in Zurich in 2024 that a group of journalists with an independent Swiss research collective began to discuss investigating Palantir , one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
- I mean, they are in Switzerland, eventually some government official maybe thought they could use this Palantir,” says Balz Oertli, who is also with WAV.
- But Republik and WAV’s work may have struck a nerve. “It’s the first time [anyone] has published a story about Palantir that has a failure narrative,” says Adrienne Fichter, a tech journalist with Republik. “They didn’t get through and they were not good enough for Switzerland … That’s why they’re going for us, that’s why they’re suing us, they want to fight this narrative.” Meyer says: “I think Palantir doesn’t really mind moral criticism.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers palantir, swiss, switzerland topics. Notable strengths include discussion of palantir. Areas of concern are also raised. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 1225.