Who we are
Onlinecensorship.org is a project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Visualizing Impact. It was founded in 2012 by Ramzi Jaber and Jillian C. York, both of whom had begun to notice posts disappearing from their friends’ Facebook pages.
One particular story inspired them to action: popular band Coldplay posted a link to OneWorld’s song “Freedom for Palestine”, a multi-artist collaboration, generating nearly 7,000 largely supportive comments. Then, suddenly, the link disappeared, leading to accusations that the band had taken it down due to criticism. As it turned out, it wasn’t Coldplay that removed the link , but Facebook, after it was reported as “abusive” by scores of users.
The lack of recourse for such takedowns led to the creation of Onlinecensorship.org, a platform where users of social media sites can report content takedowns. In 2014, we won the Knight News Challenge on the topic of strengthening the Internet for free expression and innovation and were finally able to move the project forward.
Jillian C. York
Co-Founder
Jillian C. York is a writer and activist whose work lies at the intersection of technology and policy. Based in Berlin, she serves of the Director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she works on issues of free expression, privacy, and digital security.
Ramzi Jaber
Co-Founder
Ramzi Jaber is the cofounder of Visualizing Impact, an organization that specializes in data visualization on social issues. In 2012, he was a Social Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Stanford University. He is an Ashoka Fellow and has been featured by Creative Commons, Policy Mic, Foreign Policy, and Fast Company.
Jessica Anderson
Project Manager
Jessica Anderson's work focuses on forced migration, data journalism, and MENA social entrepreneurship. She is a late co-founder of Visualizing Impact. She is particularly interested in how social media censorship affects marginalized users.
Mathana Stender
Project Strategist
Matthew Stender, Project Strategist for onlinecensorship.org, is a Tech Ethicist, focusing on the ethical and cultural implications of emerging technology. His research focuses on algorithm transparency, network bias and freedom of expression online, as well as political and socio-cultural dynamics of censorship by social media networks.
Giorgio Uboldi
Creative Director
Giorgio Uboldi is a communication designer with particular interest in Data Visualization, UX/UI design, and graphic design. He is a research assistant at DensityDesign in Milan, a research lab at Politecnico di Milano focused on the visual representation of complex social, organizational, and urban phenomena.
Kim Carlson
Staff
Kim Carlson is the international coordinator at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She currently manages the Surveillance Self-Defense project and supports in international project management and content localization. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Bassam Barham
Technology Lead
Bassam Barham is currently the Tech Area Lead with Visualizing Impact, managing a team of developers focused on the role of technology in addressing social issues. He grew is based in Amman, Jordan, where he previously worked with Media Plus for 6 years, as well as working independently as a freelance web developer.
Morad Taleeb
Web Developer
Morad Taleeb is a web developer and front-end engineer at Visualizing Impact responsible for improving user interface, user experience, Drupal development and working with Ruby back-end developers. He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Birzeit University in Palestine.
Abd El Sameia Talaat
Web Developer
Abd El Sameia Talaat is a Cairo-based web developer specializing in backend systems. He is part of the Visualizing Impact technology team.
Patil Tchilinguirian
Designer
Patil Tchilinguirian is a multidisciplinary designer and visual artist. Her work explores contextual socio-cultural themes and operates between strategic visual communication, data visualization, embroidery art and urban interventions. Patil’s work has appeared in various collective exhibitions in Beirut, Barcelona and Venice. Currently, she runs Patchil, her own multidisciplinary design studio based in Beirut.
Kurt Opsahl
Staff
Kurt Opsahl is the Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Corynne McSherry
Staff
Corynne McSherry is Legal Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Corynne specializes in free speech and intellectual property litigation.
Danny O'Brien
STAFF
Danny O'Brien is International Director at EFF. He has focused on digital rights for 20 years, co-founding the Open Rights Group and creating the Committee to Protect Journalists' Internet program.
Julia Schonlau
Illustrator
Julia Schonlau studied Media Art at Chelsea College in London. She moved to Berlin and began her career designing covers, flyers and posters for musician friends. In ten years of working as a freelance illustrator, she has worked for many different clients as well as pursued her own art. Her website is www.jujus-delivery.com.
Sarah Myers West
Sarah Myers West is a doctoral student and the Wallis Annenberg Graduate Research Fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.
Dia Kayyali
Dia Kayyali is an activist focused on issues related to privacy, free expression, and surveillance.
Ryan Budish
Ryan Budish is a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Project Director for Herdict.org.
Dr. Cherian George
Dr. Cherian George is an Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Dr. Robert Faris
Dr. Robert Faris is the Research Director at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
Oiwan Lam
Oiwan Lam is a media researcher, activist, and educator affiliated with InmediaHK and Global Voices.
Rebecca MacKinnon
Rebecca MacKinnon is the co-founder of Global Voices and the founder of Ranking Digital Rights.
Dr. Kavé Salamatian
Dr. Kavé Salamatian is Professor of Computer Science at the Université de Savoie and a visiting professor at ETH Zurich.
Dr. Ben Wagner
Dr. Ben Wagner is Director of the Centre for Internet & Human Rights at European University Viadrina.