Juan Ortiz Freuler

About Me

Bridging communication, policy, and law, my work examines how states and corporations contest control over data centers, platforms, and algorithms, and how these struggles shape development, democracy, and human rights.

I study how intermediation allows tech companies to increase their centrality within information networks, and how states then strive to leverage and exploit these central positions to advance their own national priorities. My research specifies how states rely on these network points of control to push information across borders to influence foreign populations, such as through cyber propaganda; pull information from relevant actors and companies (surveillance); and cut the flow of information in order to coerce and censor adversaries.

I also study how state policies are being deployed to neutralize the effect of these points of control, and the overarching impacts these technologies have on development and core pillars of the liberal order, such as the notion of the individual. I advocate for Non-Alignment as a focal point around which Global South countries and middle powers can coordinate demands for human-centered technological development.

My research has been published in New Media & Society, International Journal of Communication, Internet Policy Review, Temple Law Review, Journal of Cyber Policy, and Global Media & China. I also actively engage in public debates. My work has appeared in Wired, The Washington Post, Tech Won’t Save Us, CNN, and Euractiv, among others.

Go to: Full bio / Publications / Media / Talks / Teaching / Full CV (or see the latest updates below)

⏱ Updates

/Coming up

🗣 June 4-9 - Cape Town - ICA Paper on Dependency Theory in South America [Not attending due to paper-work and moving deadlines - Presentation TBD]

🌆 🚂 🏖️ June: Moving to NYC

🗣 🦅 25 Sept: Washington DC. Presenting a paper on media infrastructures at the TPRC conference [Paper co-authored with Bumju Jung]

🗣 🍁 October 7-10- Toronto: Co-chairing panel Panel: Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) in Toronto (October): "How can the study of dependency theory enhance digital sovereignty?" - co-organized with Guilherme Cavalcante Silva, Paola Ricaurte, Marco Trigoso, and Raúl Zambrano.[my physical presence TBD]

🗣 🇲🇽 Mexico City--> Oct 13-17:
Co-organizing pre-conference workshop on Dependency Theory and Non-Alignment at the Association for Internet Researchers (AoIR)) taking place in Mexico City.[with members of the NATM dependency theory working group)
Co-organizing panel on the Non-Aligned Tech Movement at the Association for Internet Researchers (AoIR) taking place in Mexico City. [with Ulises Mejias].

🗽 NYC--> Oct 24-25- Co-organizing a 2-day conference on AI & Human Rights with the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU Law.

----2026----

May

✉️ May 17: Released NATM Newsletter #29: Xi-Trump Summit

🎓 May 15: PhD graduation ceremony.

🗣 May 11. Paper on GenAI and media accepted for TPRC conference.

🗣 May: Co-organized and cancelled a workshop on Non-Aligned Tech strategies at RightsCon (online)- [Conference Cancelled]

April

📓 April 30. NEW ARTICLE! -> Ortiz Freuler, J. (2026). Informational Sovereignty: The Commercial and Geopolitical Risk of Newsroom Dependency on Third-Party Infrastructure in Latin America. International Journal of Communication.

April 24. 🪄 Profile spotlight featured by ICA Communication Law & Policy division

📓 April 26. NEW ARTICLE! Ortiz-Freuler, J. and Castells, M. (2026) From search engines to AI agents: Interface control and the restructuring of communication power. New Media & Society.

📓 April 25. NEW ARTICLE! Ortiz-Freuler, J. (2026). Neutralising the propaganda machine: proposals for cyber-propaganda de-escalation. Journal of Cyber Policy, 1–19. [Open access]

✉️ April 20: Released NATM Newsletter #28: Satellite wars, dual use technology, and the pragmatic vs principled visions of non-alignment.

🎓 April 17: Successfully defended my PhD dissertation entitled "Internet Weaponization and the Search for Autonomy in a Changing Global Governance Order." Committee: Manuel Castells (Co-Chair), Hernan Galperin (Co-Chair), Paola Ricaurte, Jonathan Aronson.

🎙️April 15. Participated of a podcast on non-alignment and dependency theory on Radio Student, from Slovenia--> https://radiostudent.si/druzba/tehno-klistir/tehnolosko-neuvrsceni# (Min 12:20)

📰 April 13. Published Spanish translation of op-ed on US pressure on Chile to block undersea cable to China. [Spanish - original in English]

📓 April 2. Published an essay: "Corporations are becoming social scaffolding, defining the shape and range of alternative social arrangements". In J. Anderson & L. Rainie (Eds.), Expert views on the impact of AI on the essence of being human. (pp. 93-95) Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center.

March

✉️ March 15: Released NATM Newsletter #27: AI warfare, Gulf datacenters on fire 🚒 and Chinese cables blocked in South America.

📰 March 13. Published an oped in Tech Policy Press with former Chilean ambassador, Jorge Heine:. Untethering South America from US Cables After Rubio Pressures Chile in Trans-Pacific.

🗣 March 6. Panel proposal accepted for the Annual Conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) in Toronto (October): "How can the study of dependency theory enhance digital sovereignty?" - co-organized with Guilherme Cavalcante Silva, Paola Ricaurte, Marco Trigoso, and Raúl Zambrano.

February

📰 February 26 Published an essay on governance stacks and the return of empires through BotPopuli, an alternative media platform founded by seven global digital justice organizations.

✉️ Feb 16: Released NATM Newsletter #26: US calls for return of Western empires ⛫- India hosts AI summit – Chile releases LatamGPT

🗣 February 9 Guest lecture at Penn Law School: AI and Bias Lab (invited by Rangita de Silva de Alwis). Presentation on the weaponization of technology.

January

🗣 January 19: Moderated a panel "Regulatory Frameworks for Emerging & Renewing Technologies". Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC), Honolulu, USA

🗣 January 18: Presented paper "Informational sovereignty: The commercial and geopolitical risk of newsroom dependency on third-party infrastructure in Latin America". Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC), Honolulu, USA.

✉️ Jan 16: Released NATM Newsletter #25: New NAM Chair- Starlink Jamming-Canada hedging-Euro-Stack anxieties

🗣 January 15: Paper on non-alignment and dependency theory accepted at ICA 2026.

🏛️ January 8 - Teaching Assistant for COMM 209: Communication and media economics (Annenberg, USC).with Prof. Paolo Sigismondi

----2025----

December

🗣 December 5. The Commercial & Political Risk of Network Points of Control. College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida.

🗣 Dec 2: Presented manuscript on Dependency theory and Tech Non-Alignment in South America at PlatGov [Remote]

🗣 December 1- Presented manuscript on Latin American Media infrastructure dependency at PlatGov [Remote].

November

🗣 November 20.Presented The Commercial & Political Risk of Network Points of Control. The Media School, Indiana University Bloomington.

October

🗣 October 16 - Presented Media crises and GenAI (Co-authored with Bumju Jung). Association of Internet Researchers (AoiR). [Remote]

📰 October 9 - Published Editorial for NYU's Open Global Rights series on tech power consolidation & the future of human rights.

September

🗣 September 24-Presented the Pulse 2025 Brief at the monthly online meeting of the Digital Resilience Network,

August

📄 August 25 - Published a Policy Brief: Pulse 2025: The Trump effect on digital resilience in the global majority. Global Network for Social Justice and Digital Resilience.

🏛️ August 15 - Teaching Assistant for COMM 209: Communication and media economics (Annenberg, USC) with Prof. Hernan Galperin.

July

📰 July 28: Published an op-ed via Tech Policy Press: 'Kill Switch Shield' and the Recurring Erosion of Trust in US Tech.

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

🗣 July 1-2: Led a Workshop for Executive Directors of Global Majority digital rights nonprofits: Geopolitical Pulse of Digital Rights in 2025, with the Global Network for Social Justice and Digital Resilience . Oslo, Norway [Post-IGF].

June

🤝 June 23-27: Attended the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Oslo, Norway. Held side-meetings with academics, funders, activists and government officials regarding the sovereignty agenda growing under the umbrella term Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).

🗣 June 12-16: Presented ongoing research: Media Infrastructure Dependencies at the International Communication Association (ICA), Media Industries Division. Denver, USA.

🗣 June 11: 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