Phumzile Van Damme is a counter-electoral disinformation and platform accountability strategy consultant. An activist on these subjects, she serves on boards and advisory councils of organisations dedicated to fighting disinformation and online violence against women and holding social media companies for harms emanating from their platforms, including the Real Facebook Oversight Board, #ShePersisted and the Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online harassment and Abuse.
A former Member of Parliament in South Africa, Van Damme was elected to Parliament at 31 and served on the Communications and Digital Technologies committee as Shadow Minister.
Van Damme’s fire foray into the fight against disinformation was featured in the documentary “Influence,” which charted the rise and fall of controversial global PR firm Bell Pottinger and her role in bringing it to justice resulting in its ultimate demise. Van Damme was invited to join the International Grand Committee on Disinformation, an international array of legislators, policy advisors, and other experts working together to forge global alliances to battle disinformation.
In September 2021, Van Damme founded and coordinated South Africa’s first electoral disinformation monitoring project. She is expanding her work to include elections around the African continent and aims to roll out similar programmes for the 2023 elections. Van Damme’s achievements have not gone unnoticed; she has received many accolades for her work. Recently she was awarded the prestigious 2022 Vital Voices Global Leadership Award for her work on electoral disinformation and platform accountability.