Rebecca mackinnon biography

Director, Ranking Digital Rights

(Video of MacKinnon’s discussion at ISOJ2019 is below her bio, along with an article from the ISOJ team)

@rmack
Rebecca MacKinnon directs the Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) project at New America, leading a team that works to promote freedom of expression and privacy on the internet by creating global standards and incentives for companies to respect and protect users’ rights. RDR’s Corporate Accountability Index ranks the world’s most powerful internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies on relevant commitments and policies, based on international human rights standards.

Rebecca is author of Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom (Basic Books, 2012), and co-founder of the citizen media network Global Voices. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists and was a founding board member of the Global Network Initiative. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Rebecca was CNN’s Bureau Chief and correspondent in China and Japan between 1998-2004. She has taught at the Univ

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27 September 2021, San Francisco, California — The Wikimedia Foundation today announced that Rebecca MacKinnon has joined the Foundation as its first Vice President for Global Advocacy. Rebecca is an experienced advocate for privacy rights and media freedom who has had a long-career in journalism, academia and public policy.

“Rebecca joins our team at a time when it is increasingly urgent to establish and defend access to open knowledge,” said Amanda Keton, General Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation. “She brings a breadth of experience across digital advocacy issues that will enable the Wikimedia Foundation to influence key regulatory initiatives in support of our mission. Her work will allow us to grow public awareness and engagement on policy issues to protect the future of the open internet.”

As the VP for Global Advocacy, Rebecca will provide strategic leadership and direction to the Wikimedia Foundation’s growing public policy team, and continue Wikimedia’s efforts to establish and defend a legal and regulatory landscape essential to the future of free knowledge globally

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Rebecca MacKinnon's weblog: http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/

Archived Biography: Rebecca MacKinnon is a veteran journalist who has enthusiastically embraced the new world of weblogs and participatory media. She is co-founder with Berkman fellow Ethan Zuckerman of Global Voices Online, an international online citizens’ media project housed at the .

Rebecca worked for CNN in for over a decade, serving as CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 1998-2001 and as Tokyo Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 2001-03. She has also covered major news events in North and , , and the . 

Since becoming a Berkman fellow in mid-2004, Rebecca has written and spoken extensively about the future of global participatory media and was primary organizer of the Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility conference at Harvard in January 2005. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Rebecca also speaks and writes frequently on issues related to the internet in China.  Her personal weblog is www.RConversation.com.

Before coming to the , Rebecca studied the relationship between in