Juan Ortiz Freuler

About Me

I am a PhD candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California My research engages with internet policy, cyber-law, and communication theory. I reflect on questions such as: How can governments secure their digital strategic autonom y in a world where technological dependence is geopolitically weaponized? How do apps acquire and manage such a central role in digital environments? How does the overarching process of datafication impact on human rights practice? I approach these questions by relying on empirical analysis and political economy frameworks.

My research has been published in the International Journal of Communication, Internet Policy Review, Temple Law Review, and Global Media and China. I also actively engage in public debates, with insights published by Wired, Washington Post, Tech Won't Save Us, CNN and Euractiv, among others.

My research agenda is rooted in and informed by my prior and ongoing engagement with policymakers and human rights practitioners. I’ve coordinated the deployment of tools like UNESCO’s Internet Universality Indicators in Argentina; designed and managed the process that led to the Contract for the Web, a global initiative to protect digital rights launched by web inventor Tim Berners-Lee; and led workshops where human rights activists and policymakers explored trends in digital rights and human rights in order to re-design their strategic approaches to urgent problems. I have also been a fellow (2017-2018) and affiliate at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center (2019-2024) and a Policy Fellow with Google (2016). Throughout, I explored how major ICT developments are reverberating across our societies.

Earlier, I worked with civil society organizations in Latin America, developing digital tools to monitor judicial appointments in Argentina, and exposing gaps in digital inclusion policies in Mexico, among others projects. These projects helped me understand how bureaucracies operate, and taught me the value of bridging academic frameworks with bottom-up participatory practices, a balance I aim to keep in my current role as co-initiator the Non-Aligned Tech Movement , a network of 100+ researchers and practitioners re-imagining tech futures.

Trained in law (Torcuato Di Tella), policy (Oxford Blavatnik School), internet studies (Oxford Internet Institute), and Communication (Annenberg, USC), I thrive in interdisciplinary spaces.

If you’re curious about internet governance, AI deployments by government, or how China-US rivalries are impacting the Global Majority's access to technology, let’s connect! I’m always eager to chat over coffee, zoom, or email/signal.

📚 RESEARCH

⏱ Updates

2025

/Coming up

July 1-2 🗣 Workshop participant: Geopolitical Pulse of Digital Rights in 2025, with the Digital Resilience Network. Oslo, Norway [Post-IGF]

July 12-16 🗣 Presenting ongoing research: Disarming the propaganda Machines, at the International Political Science Association Conference (IPSA) in Seoul, South Korea.

August - December 🏛️ Teaching Assistant for COMM 209: Communication and Media Economics (Annenberg, USC).

October 15-18 🗣 Presenting ongoing research: Media Crises and AI (Co-authored). Association of Internet Researchers (AoiR). [Remote]

June

🗣 Presented ongoing research: Media Infrastructure dependencies at the International Communication Association (ICA), Media Industries Division at Denver, USA.

🗣 Presented ongoing research: Infrastructural Power and the return of Non-Alignment: Internet centralization as geopolitical gatekeeping. Pre-ICA Workshop. Media Industries Division. University of Denver. Denver

🗣 Presented article: Infrastructural power: State strategies for internet control at the GiG-Arts conference in Salerno, Italy.

🗣 Presented ongoing research: Media Infrastructure dependencies at the GiG-Arts conference in Salerno, Italy.

May

📓 Published Infrastructural power: State strategies for internet control via Internet Policy Review.

April

🗣 Presented findings of a report: Scanning the horizon: The Future of Digital Rights and Resilience in the Global Majority. Digital Resilience Network [Online].

📓 Published an essay: "Automation will reshape our understanding of the individual and society". In J. Anderson & L. Rainie (Eds.), Expert views on the impact of AI on the essence of being human. (pp. 75-78) Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center.

March

📚 Launched a reading group on Dependency Theory with Guilherme Cavalcante within the Non-Aligned Tech Movement.

February

📰 Published a blogpost signed by a dozen academics and activists: "Re-networking Digital Infrastructure: A Non-Aligned Tech Movement to take us beyond the Age of Informational Capitalism". Backchannels blog of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4s).

📓 Published a report: Scanning the horizon: The Future of Digital Rights and Resilience in the Global Majority. Global Network for Social Justice and Digital Resilience.

📰 Curated a 6-part series on Tech & Human Rights for NYU's Open Global Rights.

🗣 Presented ongoing research: Infrastructural power: State strategies for internet control at the State of The Net (SOTN) Conference in Washington D.C. [ Recording]

January

⭑ Awarded Emerging Scholar Prize by the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) for my manuscript Infrastructural power: State strategies for internet control.

🗣 Presented ongoing research: Infrastructural power: State strategies for internet control at the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) in Honolulu, Hawaii.

--------2024-------

December

🗣 Presented ongoing research: Technology for active non-alignment. The Cluster of Excellence "Contestations of the Liberal Script" (SCRIPTS) at Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany.

November

🗣 Presented ongoing research: Disarming the propaganda machines. The Hague Program on International Cyber Security, Democracy and Cyberspace, The Hague, Netherlands.

October

📓 Published a book: Bustos Frati, A., Caeiro, C., Ferracutti, D., Martínez, M.F., Kirschbaum, I., & Ortiz Freuler, J., (2024). Evaluating Internet Development in Argentina: Using UNESCO's ROAM-X Internet Universality Indicators [Spanish]. UNESCO.

September

🗣 Poster presentation. The case for a Critical Media Infrastructure Monitor: Analysing the control points reshaping the media model and market. Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy (TPRC). Washington D.C.

August

📺 TV appearance on Live Now Fox: discussed the detention of Telegram CEO by French authorities.

July

🗣 Meetup presenter. Decolonising data infrastructures. Society for Social Studies of Science (4S). Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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For older entries, see Publications / Media / Talks / Teaching / Full CV