Belgium will play a leading role in an initiative funded by the European Commission that aims to tackle the spread of disinformation and fake news online.
The Commission's European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) was created to support community projects working to stop the spread of disinformation and fake news, the danger of which has been further accelerated by the digitalisation of society and the coronavirus crisis.
“EDMO brings together European fact-checkers, media literacy experts and researchers to better map disinformation,” said Professor Miguel Poiares Maduro, Chair of the EDMO Board of Directors.
"They provide a clearer picture of the situation at the national and regional levels to promote the fight against disinformation," he added.
Belgium will be home to two of the eight European research centres: One will be coordinated by the Free University of Brussels (VUB) as part of EDMO for Belgium and Luxembourg (EDMO BELUX) and one will be created as part of the Flemish-Dutch branch of the project.
Finding, analyzing and detecting fake news
The Belgium-Luxembourg Center, which will be launched in October 2021, will bring together a network of more than 100 experienced fact-checkers, employees from media organizations (including RFL and Agence France-Presse), disinformation analysts, media education organizations.
The aim of the initiative is to detect, analyse and expose harmful disinformation campaigns and increase media literacy in five languages (Dutch, French, English, German, Luxembourgish).
Within the network, early alerts will reach first responders to disinformation (media, civil society, government) in order to minimize the impact of disinformation campaigns.
The project will also include media education campaigns to raise awareness and empower citizens and the media, while monitoring the impact of disinformation and platform responses on democratic processes.
Meanwhile, a second multidisciplinary centre will be set up by the Dutch-speaking equivalent of EDMO, which received €2 million in funding from the Commission, also to increase media literacy and detect the spread of fake news.
The two centers, which will work closely together, will also produce and publish fact checks.
“The various hubs launched this year in different member states are sharing results, so the efforts in the Netherlands and Belgium also contribute to the broader agenda to support the news ecosystem in Europe,” said Johan Oomen, project coordinator at EDMO, in the Netherlands.
(Article from Brusselstimes)