Digital media and disinformationRTL Luxembourg, co-founder of EDMO BELUX

RTL Luxembourg is one of the co-founders of the European Digital Media Observatory for Belgium and Luxembourg (EDMO BELUX), a Belgian and Luxembourgish hub for research on digital media and disinformation. EDMO BELUX will launch in October 2021 and operate in five languages (Dutch, French, English, German, Luxembourgish). This European Commission funded hub will gather a network of more than 100 disinformation experts. The Vrije Universiteit Brussel will coordinate EDMO BELUX.

EDMO BELUX mission

• EDMO BELUX will bring together an unprecedented and extensive network of experienced fact-checkers, media, disinformation analysts, media literacy organisations and academics to detect, analyse and expose emerging harmful disinformation campaigns.
• Through rapid alerts in the network, EDMO BELUX’s fact checks and investigative reporting will reach first responders to disinformation (media, civil society, institutions) in order to minimise the impact of disinformation campaigns.
• Through media literacy campaigns, EDMO BELUX will raise awareness among and empower citizens.
• Through multidisciplinary research, EDMO BELUX will monitor the impact of disinformation and platform responses on democratic processes.

Concrete actions

In the first thirty months of its operation, the hub will publish 800 fact checks in five languages, conduct OSINT (open source intelligence) investigations on disinformation campaigns, develop and implement media literacy activities at community level and deliver annual cross-community audience studies on impact of disinformation campaigns, as well as annual assessments of effectiveness of platform responses to disinformation.

EDMO BELUX members

EDMO BELUX is a cross-community, multilingual collaboration between Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles, Mediawijs, EU Disinfolab, Agence France-Presse, RTL Luxembourg and Athens Technology Center, with support by RTBF. It is one of eight projects to have received EU funding to set up national and multinational observatories to counter disinformation. Exchange of knowledge and practices among project partners and the EDMO network is paramount to effectively and efficiently counter emerging disinformation campaigns in Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union at large.

RTL Luxembourg will focus on detecting disinformation campaigns, verifying facts and disclosing analyses. RTL Luxembourg will also be active in the field of media literacy to raise public awareness and counter disinformation.