OCPSG speaks to the European Parliament's Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield Mission to the UK

The Oxford Computational Political Science Group (OCPSG) was recently invited to speak at Europe House to the European Parliament's Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield Mission to the United Kingdom about disinformation and media literacy.

We caught up with Bosco Hung and Nachiket Midha from the group to ask them all about the experience and what it meant to them:

How did the invitation to speak at Europe House to the European Parliament's Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield Mission come about?

The invitation originated from a partnership between OCPSG and Europinion which is developing a media literacy toolkit and evaluative framework for championing youth agency in safeguarding European democratic spaces. Against the backdrop of growing political polarization and the increasing threat of information warfare by malicious actors, our project focused on strengthening resilience against manipulation in the digital age. 

Following an earlier presentation by Europinion on the media literacy toolkit and research findings at the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) hearing, both OCPSG and Europinion were invited to speak at the European Parliament's Liaison Office in the UK/Europe House to the European Parliament's Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield Mission to the United Kingdom about our collaboration. They were keen to know more about the toolkit and evaluation framework we have developed as a part of its wider fact-finding mission.

What were your main messages?

Our key messages were grounded in personal experiences and a shared commitment to democratic resilience. Both of us are strongly concerned about disinformation and media literacy since we have witnessed first-hand how information manipulation can reshape people's perception of political events in our home country and hometown. 

Also, as Bosco previously worked on a research project on the rise of extremism in Europe delivered to members of the US Department of State, we were aware of how social media and algorithmic bias could distort public discourse and erode trust in democratic institutions.

While top-down content regulations are vital to ensuring a safer digital space, we stressed that they are insufficient on their own. Disinformation is most effectively countered when individuals are equipped to think critically and act responsibly. People don’t want to be told what to believe. They prefer being empowered to decide what to believe, which will then inform how they evaluate, filter and disseminate information responsibly. 

This especially applies to the case of young people since they are not merely passive recipients of information vulnerable to algorithmic influence. They also create, share, and amplify information, thus making them an active participant in the information ecosystem. Given their high levels of engagement with digital platforms and their role as future civic leaders, youth participation is critical to building democratic resilience. Media literacy education should therefore start early.

We also addressed the psychological and cognitive aspects of disinformation. In today’s fast-paced media landscape, people have a short attention span and limited time, while people naturally develop a psychological bias towards certain information sources, so disinformation will always remain a threat. 

While its persistence may seem inevitable, its influence need not be. By helping individuals develop a reflexive awareness of the typical patterns and emotional cues used in disinformation, we can foster a more intuitive and enduring form of digital resilience.

This was your Group’s first major policy engagement – why was it so important?

Making a positive impact beyond academia has always been one of the key aims of OCPSG. The invitation is genuinely exciting for us since it has only been a few months since the research initiative's establishment. As we plan to perform data-intensive research to assess manipulation resistance, trust dynamics, and civic confidence, this also indicates a demand for using robust data-driven social science research to inform policy-making. 

The discussion has helped us understand some of the major concerns of policymakers with regard to disinformation, which will help us refine our plan for our future policy intervention pilot testing and liaise with the relevant stakeholders.

What impact do you hope to achieve?

We hope that our work will help demonstrate the importance of youth engagement in shaping democratic resilience and the capability of young people to facilitate policy-making. We would particularly look forward to an expansion of bottom-up initiatives complementing the top-down regulations, which will create a more participatory and inclusive democratic culture. We look forward to contributing to a policy landscape where young people are not just consulted, but actively shaping responses to the complex challenges of disinformation.

OCPSG aims to transform Oxford into a research hub for computational political science by fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and offering first-hand research opportunities.

Europinion is an independent social enterprise and media platform committed to strengthening democratic resilience, media literacy, and pluralistic dialogue across Europe. At our core, we empower young people to critically engage with information and reclaim agency over the digital spaces they inhabit.