Founders and Supporters
Creating community around a new digital social contract
We are an international, interdisciplinary group of technologists, policymakers, and scholars who have long advocated within our own fields for collectively-determined digital rights for all communities and an internet that supports democratic values.
We advance an open and informed dialogue that incorporates a wide variety of perspectives on the issues of algorithmic governance and digital rights. Through our research, our writing, and our advocacy, we share a commitment to making a meaningful digital rights framework a reality.

Adrien Abécassis
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Is a career diplomat who served as a European Advisor to the President of France overseeing French policies on bilateral European affairs across the government, and as a Senior Political Advisor, providing briefs to the President and coordinating efforts on policy planning.
Adrien started his professional career at the Foreign Service as a Policy Officer, then was seconded to a progressive think tank where he helped develop international and research activities. He belongs to several networks of political and strategist advisors. Currently a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Adrien graduated in International Law and Public Administration from Sciences-Po Paris and holds a Diploma in Arabic Language and Civilization and has lived in Cairo, Egypt, in 2004-2005.

Elina Noor
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Is Director, Political-Security Affairs and Deputy Director, Washington, D.C. Office at the Asia Society Policy Institute. A native of Malaysia, Elina’s work focuses on the intersection of global governance and technology and security dynamics in Southeast Asia.
A native of Malaysia, Elina’s work focuses on the intersection of global governance and technology, preventing/countering violent extremism, and security dynamics in Southeast Asia. Elina sits on the United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs’ roster of experts, supporting efforts to build member states’ cyber-related capacity. She also served on the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace. Elina read law at Oxford University. She holds an LL.M (Public International Law) from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an MA (Security Studies) from Georgetown University.

Dipayan Ghosh, Ph.D.
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Is the co-director of the Digital Platforms & Democracy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School and lecturer at Harvard Law School. He is the author of Terms of Disservice.
Dipayan previously was a technology and economic policy advisor in the Obama White House, serving in the Office of Science & Technology Policy and the National Economic Council. He later served as privacy & public policy advisor at Facebook, where he led strategic efforts to address privacy and security. He has served as a fellow at New America, a public policy think tank. His work on AI, privacy, disinformation, and internet economics has been cited and published widely, including in The New York Times, The Washington Post, HBR, CNN, MSNBC, NPR and BBC. Named to the Forbes 30 Under 30, he received a doctorate in electrical & computer engineering from Cornell and an MBA from MIT.

Merih Angin, Ph.D.
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Is the Founding Director of the MA-Computational Social Science Lab and Assistant Professor & Marie Curie Fellow at the Department of International Relations of Koç University.
Merih previously was a postdoctoral fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs of Harvard University, and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government of the University of Oxford. She holds a Ph.D. degree in International Relations/Political Science from the Graduate Institute of International and DevelopmentStudies (IHEID) in Geneva.Her research on applications of AI in social sciences has been awarded various grants from institutions including the European Union and Swiss National Science Foundation. As a computational social scientist primarily working on development issues, her current research focuses on AI governance and the impact of AI on development.

Jack Loveridge, Ph.D.
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Is a historian of science and technology and currently a research associate at Koç University’s Center for Globalization, Peace, and Democratic Governance (GLODEM) in Istanbul, Turkey.
Originally from El Paso, Texas on the U.S.-Mexico border, he earned his doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin and his M.Phil. (International Development) from Oxford University. His current research and book project center on the interplay of science, economic policy, and population regulation in South Asia during the Green Revolution of the 1960s. He was a Fulbright-Nehru fellow in India from 2014-15 and held fellowships at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Yale’s Program in International Security Studies and the Cooper Union. From 2009-11, he served as the Policy Analyst for Justice Matters, a racial justice in education organization based in Oakland, California.

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Thank you for taking the time to connect with Initiate: Digital Rights in Society. Your perspective and ideas are important to our shared work. We are eager to collaborate with experts and organizations from around the world interested in participating in our working groups and other activities. Please let us know how you would like to be involved and our team will respond as soon as possible.