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Afef Abrougui

Afef Abrougui has more than ten years of experience researching and writing about technology and human rights. She is the owner of Fair Tech, a consultancy based in The Hague, with the mission to protect human rights in the digital space. She holds a Media Studies MA (Track: New Media and Digital Culture) from the University of Amsterdam.

Featured Publications

    Mahsa Alimardani

    Mahsa Alimardani is an Internet researcher focusing on freedom of expression and access to information online in Iran. Her research aims to understand communications ecologies within Iran’s information control space. Mahsa has worked on digital rights on Iran since 2012, in various capacities within civil society. She does research on freedom of expression online in the MENA region with the human rights organization ARTICLE19. Mahsa is also a Senior Information Control Fellow with the Open Technology Institute, and a Graduate Resident of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. She is a DPhil candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute. Her publications can be found here.

    Featured Publications

    • Mahsa Alimardani and Mona Elswah, “Online Temptations: COVID-19 and Religious Misinformation in the MENA Region,” Social Media + Society 6, no. 3 (2020): 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120948251.
    • Mahsa Alimardani and Stefania Milan, “The Internet as a Global/Local Site of Contestation: The Case of Iran,” in Global Cultures of Contestation: Mobility, Sustainability, Aesthetics & Connectivity, ed. Esther Peeren et al., Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018), 171–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63982-6_9.
    • Mona Elswah and Mahsa Alimardani, “Propaganda Chimera: Unpacking the Iranian Perception Information Operations in the Arab World,” Open Information Science 5, no. 1 (January 1, 2021): 163–74. https://doi.org/10.1515/opis-2020-0122.

      Arindrajit Basu

      Arindrajit Basu is a PHD candidate at Leiden University’s faculty of global governance and affairs, working on  “Sovereignty and order contestation in cyberspace.” He is also a digitalization and human rights consultant with the United Nations Development Program. He was formerly research lead with the Centre for Internet&Society where he led research agendas on India’s approach to data governance and foreign policy. He is a lawyer by training, holding a LLM from the University of Cambridge and a BA, LLB (Hons) from NUJS, Kolkata.

      Featured Publications

        Luca Belli

        Dr. Luca Belli is professor of digital governance and regulation at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) Law School, Rio de Janeiro, where he directs the Center for Technology and Society (CTS-FGV) and the CyberBRICS project. Luca is also editor of the International Data Privacy Law Journal, published by Oxford University Press, and director of the Computers Privacy and Data Protection conference Latin-America (CPDP LatAm). He is currently board member of the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership and member of the Steering Committee of the Forum for Information & Democracy. He is author of more than 50 publications on law and technology and his works have been quoted by numerous media outlets, including the Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, Le Monde, BBC, China Today, the Beijing Review, the Hill, O Globo, Folha de São Paulo, El Pais, and La Stampa. Luca holds a PhD in public law from Université Paris Panthéon-Assas and can be found on LinkedIn and on Twitter as @1lucabelli.


        Agustina Del Campo

        Agustina Del Campo directs the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE) at Universidad de Palermo in Argentina. The center provides legal technical analysis on cutting-edge free speech issues on and offline from a regional human rights perspective. Agustina teaches graduate and post-graduate courses on international human rights law and Internet and human rights at Universidad de Palermo. She is a guest expert at Columbia’s Global Freedom of Expression Project and an alternate member of the Board at the Global Network Initiative.

        Featured Publications

          Sinta Dewi

          Dr. Sinta Dewi, SH., LLM is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Padjadjaran University (UNPAD) since 1991. Dewi completed her undergraduate education UNPAD’s Faculty of Law with a specialization in International Law in 1987. She obtained a master’s degree in International Legal Studies at Washington College of Law in 1998. She achieved her doctorate from UNPAD in 2009, specializing in Technology, Information and Communication Law. She served as the head of the Cyber Law Study Center, and she is currently the head of the Department ICT and Intellectual Property at UNPAD’s Faculty of Law. Dewi studies Cyber Law, E-Commerce Law, Telecommunication Law, and Personal Data Protection Law.

          Featured Publications

            Iginio Gagliardone

            Iginio Gagliardone is Professor in Media and Communication at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science and has been living between Italy, Ethiopia, the UK, and South Africa, researching the relationship between technology and politics and exploring the emergence of distinctive models of the information society in the Global South. He is the author of “China, Africa, and the future of the Internet” (ZED), “The Politics of Technology in Africa” (Cambridge University Press), and “Countering Online Hate Speech” (UNESCO). His latest research project examines the international politics of Artificial Intelligence in Africa. 

            Featured Publications

              Usama Khilji

              Usama Khilji is an activist, researcher, and columnist from Pakistan. He is the cofounder and director of Bolo Bhi, an advocacy, policy, and research citizens group focused on digital rights and internet policy. He is a columnist at Dawn and board member of the Global Network Initiative. He also serves on Facebook’s privacy experts group for Asia Pacific and was a 2021 member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Systemic Inequality and Social Cohesion. He is an adjunct faculty member in Mass Communication at the National University of Science and Technology in Islamabad.

              Usama regularly trains members of the judiciary in Pakistan on matters related to cybercrime and internet regulation, and conducts digital security trainings for journalists and human rights defenders. He has written for Slate Magazine, Al Jazeera English, LSE’s South Asia Blog, LSE Review of Books, Herald, and Aurora Magazine. He is a regular speaker at events related to democracy, human rights, social media, press freedom, and gender, including at the UN’s IGF, the Atlantic Council, UNESCO, UNDP, USAID, RightsCon, Columbia University, and Internews. He holds an MSc in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he was a Chevening scholar. You can read his columns here.

              Featured Publications

                Lillian Nalwoga

                Lillian Nalwoga is a technology researcher and advocate interested in promoting and advancing the appropriate use of ICT for empowerment and development. She has over 10 years in internet policy research and implementing ICT4D projects in Africa with active involvement in Internet governance debates at the local, regional, and global level through her role as a coordinator of the Uganda and East African Internet Governance Forums. Lillian works as a Programmes Manager at the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) and is co-founder and past president of the Internet Society Uganda Chapter. She has served on the UN - Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) of the global Internet Governance Forum from 2012–2014. She currently serves on the Global Network Initiative (GNI) Board; and has served on the Danish Institute for Human Rights Advisory Board for Digital transition and Human Rights project in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is Internet Governance expert on the Africa Union Commission (AUC) Policy and Regulatory Initiative for Digital Africa (PRIDA) Africa Union Technical Committee.


                Jonathan Ong

                Jonathan Corpus Ong is Associate Professor of Global Digital Media in the University of Massachusetts - Amherst. He is the author of two books and over 25 journal articles in the areas of media ethics, humanitarian communication, and digital politics. He is currently Co-Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation Accelerator Grant (2021-2023) entitled “FACT Champ,” which investigates racially targeted misinformation and hate against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the wake of Covid-19. Jonathan is currently Research Fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center. He leads the “True Costs of Misinformation” project that aims to develop new conceptual tools and practical models that can measure the financial, social, and human costs of misinformation. In his disinformation studies research, Jonathan uses ethnography to understand the social identities, work arrangements and moral justifications of workers behind shadowy influence operations. His pioneering study “Architects of Networked Disinformation” demystifies the collaborative work structures of the advertising and PR strategists behind toxic political campaigns in Duterte’s Philippines.

                Featured Publications

                  Irene Poetranto

                  Irene Poetranto is a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab, based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, where she studies the politics of internet regulation in Southeast Asia.

                  Featured Publications

                    Jan Rydzak

                    Jan Rydzak is the Digital Transformation Lead at the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA). He oversees the Digital Inclusion Benchmark (DIB), which evaluates the transparency of 200 technology companies on issues ranging from expanding digital skills to ethical AI. He leads the Digital Transformation's overall strategy on holding companies accountable, including through collaborative engagement campaigns such as the Collective Impact Coalition for Digital Inclusion. Jan previously managed engagement with companies and investors at Ranking Digital Rights (RDR), a human rights initiative benchmarking tech platforms and telcos on freedom of expression and privacy issues. He has also worked as Associate Director for Program at the Global Digital Policy Incubator at Stanford University and as a Google Policy Fellow with the Global Network Initiative. Jan completed his PhD at the University of Arizona, where he conducted research on the impact of internet shutdowns on protest, and holds a master’s degree in Modern Languages from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Poland.

                    Featured Publications

                      ‘Gbenga Sesan

                      ‘Gbenga Sesan is the Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative, a pan-African social enterprise working on digital inclusion and digital rights through its offices in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford University. Prior to starting Paradigm Initiative, ‘Gbenga led the Lagos Digital Village, a joint project of Junior Achievement of Nigeria, Microsoft, and Lagos State Government. Originally trained as an Electronic & Electrical Engineer at Obafemi Awolowo University, he completed Executive Education programs at Lagos Business School, New York Group for Technology Transfer, Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Santa Clara University and University of the Pacific. A Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year and former member of the United Nations Committee of eLeaders on Youth and ICT, as well as a CyberStewards Fellow, Crans Montana Forum Fellow, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow, Ashoka Fellow, and Our Common Future Fellow and Cordes Fellow. ‘Gbenga served as a member of the Presidential committees on Harmonization of Information Technology, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Sectors (2006) and Roadmap for the Achievement of Accelerated Universal Broadband Infrastructure and Services Provision (2013) and was listed by CNN as one of the Top 10 African Tech Voices on Twitter and by Ventures Africa as one of 40 African Legends Under 40.

                      Featured Publications

                        Janjira Sombatpoonsiri

                        Janjira Sombatpoonsiri is a research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies and an assistant professor at Thailand's Chulalongkorn University. Her current research focuses on autocratic weaponization of disinformation laws, digital propaganda and conflict narratives in Southeast Asia, and digital repression of protest movements. Her academic articles appear in, for instance, International Journal of Communication, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Voluntas, and Journal of Peace Research. She is a regional manager for the Digital Society Project.

                        Featured Publications

                          Akin Unver

                          Akin Unver is an associate professor of international relations at Ozyegin University in Istanbul. Previously he was a research fellow at the Oxford University's Center for Technology and Global Affairs, Oxford Internet Institute, the Alan Turing Institute in London, and taught graduate courses on political conflict at Princeton, Michigan, and Oxford. His research interests sit at the intersection of emerging technologies, diplomacy, and international security, with a particular focus on how social media affects subnational conflict and civil war dynamics. Dr. Unver also previously served as a scientific advisor to the European External Action Service, United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Innovation Cell and Facebook's Content Policy Team. He serves as an associate editor of the Global Studies Quarterly, and a member of the International Studies Association's (ISA) Governing Council. He has a PhD in Government from the University of Essex.

                          Featured Publications

                          Afef Abrougui

                          Afef Abrougui has more than ten years of experience researching and writing about technology and human rights. She is the owner of Fair Tech, a consultancy based in The Hague, with the mission to protect human rights in the digital space. She holds a Media Studies MA (Track: New Media and Digital Culture) from the University of Amsterdam.

                          Featured Publications

                            Mahsa Alimardani

                            Mahsa Alimardani is an Internet researcher focusing on freedom of expression and access to information online in Iran. Her research aims to understand communications ecologies within Iran’s information control space. Mahsa has worked on digital rights on Iran since 2012, in various capacities within civil society. She does research on freedom of expression online in the MENA region with the human rights organization ARTICLE19. Mahsa is also a Senior Information Control Fellow with the Open Technology Institute, and a Graduate Resident of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. She is a DPhil candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute. Her publications can be found here.

                            Featured Publications

                            • Mahsa Alimardani and Mona Elswah, “Online Temptations: COVID-19 and Religious Misinformation in the MENA Region,” Social Media + Society 6, no. 3 (2020): 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120948251.
                            • Mahsa Alimardani and Stefania Milan, “The Internet as a Global/Local Site of Contestation: The Case of Iran,” in Global Cultures of Contestation: Mobility, Sustainability, Aesthetics & Connectivity, ed. Esther Peeren et al., Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018), 171–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63982-6_9.
                            • Mona Elswah and Mahsa Alimardani, “Propaganda Chimera: Unpacking the Iranian Perception Information Operations in the Arab World,” Open Information Science 5, no. 1 (January 1, 2021): 163–74. https://doi.org/10.1515/opis-2020-0122.

                              Arindrajit Basu

                              Arindrajit Basu is a PHD candidate at Leiden University’s faculty of global governance and affairs, working on  “Sovereignty and order contestation in cyberspace.” He is also a digitalization and human rights consultant with the United Nations Development Program. He was formerly research lead with the Centre for Internet&Society where he led research agendas on India’s approach to data governance and foreign policy. He is a lawyer by training, holding a LLM from the University of Cambridge and a BA, LLB (Hons) from NUJS, Kolkata.

                              Featured Publications

                                Luca Belli

                                Dr. Luca Belli is professor of digital governance and regulation at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) Law School, Rio de Janeiro, where he directs the Center for Technology and Society (CTS-FGV) and the CyberBRICS project. Luca is also editor of the International Data Privacy Law Journal, published by Oxford University Press, and director of the Computers Privacy and Data Protection conference Latin-America (CPDP LatAm). He is currently board member of the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership and member of the Steering Committee of the Forum for Information & Democracy. He is author of more than 50 publications on law and technology and his works have been quoted by numerous media outlets, including the Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, Le Monde, BBC, China Today, the Beijing Review, the Hill, O Globo, Folha de São Paulo, El Pais, and La Stampa. Luca holds a PhD in public law from Université Paris Panthéon-Assas and can be found on LinkedIn and on Twitter as @1lucabelli.


                                Agustina Del Campo

                                Agustina Del Campo directs the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE) at Universidad de Palermo in Argentina. The center provides legal technical analysis on cutting-edge free speech issues on and offline from a regional human rights perspective. Agustina teaches graduate and post-graduate courses on international human rights law and Internet and human rights at Universidad de Palermo. She is a guest expert at Columbia’s Global Freedom of Expression Project and an alternate member of the Board at the Global Network Initiative.

                                Featured Publications

                                  Sinta Dewi

                                  Dr. Sinta Dewi, SH., LLM is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Padjadjaran University (UNPAD) since 1991. Dewi completed her undergraduate education UNPAD’s Faculty of Law with a specialization in International Law in 1987. She obtained a master’s degree in International Legal Studies at Washington College of Law in 1998. She achieved her doctorate from UNPAD in 2009, specializing in Technology, Information and Communication Law. She served as the head of the Cyber Law Study Center, and she is currently the head of the Department ICT and Intellectual Property at UNPAD’s Faculty of Law. Dewi studies Cyber Law, E-Commerce Law, Telecommunication Law, and Personal Data Protection Law.

                                  Featured Publications

                                    Iginio Gagliardone

                                    Iginio Gagliardone is Professor in Media and Communication at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science and has been living between Italy, Ethiopia, the UK, and South Africa, researching the relationship between technology and politics and exploring the emergence of distinctive models of the information society in the Global South. He is the author of “China, Africa, and the future of the Internet” (ZED), “The Politics of Technology in Africa” (Cambridge University Press), and “Countering Online Hate Speech” (UNESCO). His latest research project examines the international politics of Artificial Intelligence in Africa. 

                                    Featured Publications

                                      Usama Khilji

                                      Usama Khilji is an activist, researcher, and columnist from Pakistan. He is the cofounder and director of Bolo Bhi, an advocacy, policy, and research citizens group focused on digital rights and internet policy. He is a columnist at Dawn and board member of the Global Network Initiative. He also serves on Facebook’s privacy experts group for Asia Pacific and was a 2021 member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Systemic Inequality and Social Cohesion. He is an adjunct faculty member in Mass Communication at the National University of Science and Technology in Islamabad.

                                      Usama regularly trains members of the judiciary in Pakistan on matters related to cybercrime and internet regulation, and conducts digital security trainings for journalists and human rights defenders. He has written for Slate Magazine, Al Jazeera English, LSE’s South Asia Blog, LSE Review of Books, Herald, and Aurora Magazine. He is a regular speaker at events related to democracy, human rights, social media, press freedom, and gender, including at the UN’s IGF, the Atlantic Council, UNESCO, UNDP, USAID, RightsCon, Columbia University, and Internews. He holds an MSc in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he was a Chevening scholar. You can read his columns here.

                                      Featured Publications

                                        Lillian Nalwoga

                                        Lillian Nalwoga is a technology researcher and advocate interested in promoting and advancing the appropriate use of ICT for empowerment and development. She has over 10 years in internet policy research and implementing ICT4D projects in Africa with active involvement in Internet governance debates at the local, regional, and global level through her role as a coordinator of the Uganda and East African Internet Governance Forums. Lillian works as a Programmes Manager at the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) and is co-founder and past president of the Internet Society Uganda Chapter. She has served on the UN - Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) of the global Internet Governance Forum from 2012–2014. She currently serves on the Global Network Initiative (GNI) Board; and has served on the Danish Institute for Human Rights Advisory Board for Digital transition and Human Rights project in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is Internet Governance expert on the Africa Union Commission (AUC) Policy and Regulatory Initiative for Digital Africa (PRIDA) Africa Union Technical Committee.


                                        Jonathan Ong

                                        Jonathan Corpus Ong is Associate Professor of Global Digital Media in the University of Massachusetts - Amherst. He is the author of two books and over 25 journal articles in the areas of media ethics, humanitarian communication, and digital politics. He is currently Co-Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation Accelerator Grant (2021-2023) entitled “FACT Champ,” which investigates racially targeted misinformation and hate against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the wake of Covid-19. Jonathan is currently Research Fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center. He leads the “True Costs of Misinformation” project that aims to develop new conceptual tools and practical models that can measure the financial, social, and human costs of misinformation. In his disinformation studies research, Jonathan uses ethnography to understand the social identities, work arrangements and moral justifications of workers behind shadowy influence operations. His pioneering study “Architects of Networked Disinformation” demystifies the collaborative work structures of the advertising and PR strategists behind toxic political campaigns in Duterte’s Philippines.

                                        Featured Publications

                                          Irene Poetranto

                                          Irene Poetranto is a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab, based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, where she studies the politics of internet regulation in Southeast Asia.

                                          Featured Publications

                                            Jan Rydzak

                                            Jan Rydzak is the Digital Transformation Lead at the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA). He oversees the Digital Inclusion Benchmark (DIB), which evaluates the transparency of 200 technology companies on issues ranging from expanding digital skills to ethical AI. He leads the Digital Transformation's overall strategy on holding companies accountable, including through collaborative engagement campaigns such as the Collective Impact Coalition for Digital Inclusion. Jan previously managed engagement with companies and investors at Ranking Digital Rights (RDR), a human rights initiative benchmarking tech platforms and telcos on freedom of expression and privacy issues. He has also worked as Associate Director for Program at the Global Digital Policy Incubator at Stanford University and as a Google Policy Fellow with the Global Network Initiative. Jan completed his PhD at the University of Arizona, where he conducted research on the impact of internet shutdowns on protest, and holds a master’s degree in Modern Languages from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Poland.

                                            Featured Publications

                                              ‘Gbenga Sesan

                                              ‘Gbenga Sesan is the Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative, a pan-African social enterprise working on digital inclusion and digital rights through its offices in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford University. Prior to starting Paradigm Initiative, ‘Gbenga led the Lagos Digital Village, a joint project of Junior Achievement of Nigeria, Microsoft, and Lagos State Government. Originally trained as an Electronic & Electrical Engineer at Obafemi Awolowo University, he completed Executive Education programs at Lagos Business School, New York Group for Technology Transfer, Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Santa Clara University and University of the Pacific. A Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year and former member of the United Nations Committee of eLeaders on Youth and ICT, as well as a CyberStewards Fellow, Crans Montana Forum Fellow, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow, Ashoka Fellow, and Our Common Future Fellow and Cordes Fellow. ‘Gbenga served as a member of the Presidential committees on Harmonization of Information Technology, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Sectors (2006) and Roadmap for the Achievement of Accelerated Universal Broadband Infrastructure and Services Provision (2013) and was listed by CNN as one of the Top 10 African Tech Voices on Twitter and by Ventures Africa as one of 40 African Legends Under 40.

                                              Featured Publications

                                                Janjira Sombatpoonsiri

                                                Janjira Sombatpoonsiri is a research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies and an assistant professor at Thailand's Chulalongkorn University. Her current research focuses on autocratic weaponization of disinformation laws, digital propaganda and conflict narratives in Southeast Asia, and digital repression of protest movements. Her academic articles appear in, for instance, International Journal of Communication, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Voluntas, and Journal of Peace Research. She is a regional manager for the Digital Society Project.

                                                Featured Publications

                                                  Akin Unver

                                                  Akin Unver is an associate professor of international relations at Ozyegin University in Istanbul. Previously he was a research fellow at the Oxford University's Center for Technology and Global Affairs, Oxford Internet Institute, the Alan Turing Institute in London, and taught graduate courses on political conflict at Princeton, Michigan, and Oxford. His research interests sit at the intersection of emerging technologies, diplomacy, and international security, with a particular focus on how social media affects subnational conflict and civil war dynamics. Dr. Unver also previously served as a scientific advisor to the European External Action Service, United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Innovation Cell and Facebook's Content Policy Team. He serves as an associate editor of the Global Studies Quarterly, and a member of the International Studies Association's (ISA) Governing Council. He has a PhD in Government from the University of Essex.

                                                  Featured Publications