Rebecca MacKinnon - Tech for Democracy

Rebecca MacKinnon is Vice President at Wikimedia.

Rebecca MacKinnon is Vice President, Global Advocacy at the Wikimedia Foundation, working to promote and defend a legal and regulatory landscape essential to the future of free knowledge globally.

Previously she was Founding Director of Ranking Digital Rights, a research program at New America that sets global standards for corporate respect for freedom of expression and privacy online. Author of Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom (2012), she is co-founder of the citizen media network Global Voices, serves on the Board of Directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists and is a founding member of the Global Network Initiative. Between 1998-2004 she was CNN’s Bureau Chief in Beijing and Tokyo.

Rebecca MacKinnon has taught at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Pennsylvania, and held fellowships at Harvard, Princeton, the Open Society Foundations, and the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. She holds an AB magna cum laude in Government from Harvard and was a Fulbright scholar in Taiwan.

Speaking events

Listen to Rebecca MacKinnon speak at the conference

18 Nov4:04 pm - 4:20 pm

Session 5: How do we make change and inspire action?

Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen

In this session, we focus on the need for action and demonstrate how to “walk the walk and talk the talk”. What initiatives, partnerships and actions can bring about real change to make tech work for democracy and human rights? The two central pillars of the Tech for Democracy initiative, the Copenhagen Pledge, and Action Coalitions will be presented to guide and inspire action. Other initiatives and partners will present their visions and actions with the aim of inspiring further action and displaying how the Tech for Democracy initiative complements existing efforts.