On 27 November 2020 Sofia Collignon and Ben O’Loughlin were keynote speakers testifying to the Belgian Senate, presenting evidence of their research on digital politics. The Committee for Transversal Affairs of the Belgian Senate is currently preparing an information report on the necessary cooperation between the Belgian federal and regional governments in the fight against fake news.

Collignon talked to the Senate about how there is a fine line between misinformation, smear campaigns and intimidation. Her data show smear campaigns have strong emotional consequences for candidates. She has also found Important variations on the causes of smear campaigns depending on the kind of politician that is being targeted.

O’Loughlin began by noting the lack of large scale evidence about digital politics across multiple platforms, the problems of transparency when handling such data, and how citizens now require media literacy about how data is produced, circulated, shaped by algorithms, and other dimensions that make media literacy far more than simply knowing if a fact is true or false. He then gave a set of recommendations to policymakers and journalists.

NPCU expects the report to be published in 2021.