diff --git a/swh/loader/core/loader.py b/swh/loader/core/loader.py
--- a/swh/loader/core/loader.py
+++ b/swh/loader/core/loader.py
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@
         lister_name: Optional[str] = None,
         lister_instance_name: Optional[str] = None,
         metadata_fetcher_credentials: CredentialsType = None,
+        **kwargs,
     ):
         if lister_name == "":
             raise ValueError("lister_name must not be the empty string")
@@ -116,6 +117,9 @@
         _log = logging.getLogger("requests.packages.urllib3.connectionpool")
         _log.setLevel(logging.WARN)
 
+        self.log.setLevel(
+            logging.DEBUG if kwargs.get("debug") is True else logging.INFO
+        )
         # possibly overridden in self.prepare method
         self.visit_date = datetime.datetime.now(tz=datetime.timezone.utc)