Belgium's Federal Minister for Public Enterprises, the Buildings Agency, Digitalisation, Artificial Intelligence and Privacy, Vanessa Matz (Les Engagés), is under increased police protection.
Since Matz announced her plans to end anonymity on social media – a measure that is part of the coalition agreement to better protect people from online harassment – she has been receiving anonymous threats from the far-right, she told Sudinfo on Wednesday.
"I have alerted the Crisis Centre and filed a complaint against unknown people with the Brussels police for threats and insults," said Matz.
After looking into the threats, the Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis (CUTA), which processes all relevant information and intelligence on terrorism, extremism and problematic radicalisation, raised the minister's threat level.
"I now enjoy increased police protection," Matz added. "But all of this shows how necessary the project is. Some people think that freedom of expression allows anything. That is not true, and I will not give up on my project."
