The Global Network Initiative (GNI) is pleased to welcome Alexander Hohfeld, Dan Arnaudo and Jen Weedon to its academic constituency as members.
Welcoming all three new members, GNI Executive Director Jason Pielemeier said, “We are thrilled to welcome Alex, Dan, and Jen to GNI. All three have focused on tracking the actors who exploit digital platforms to cause harm and working to shape governance and design around those platforms to be safer and more rights-respecting. Their diverse regional perspectives and appointments will continue to round out our understanding of tech governance.”
Alexander Hohlfeld is a digital policy researcher and consultant whose work focuses on analysing technological, regulatory, and enforcement-related developments across the digital ecosystem and their societal implications, particularly for fundamental and human rights. His work examines the intersection of platform governance, freedom of expression, and emerging regulatory frameworks shaping the digital public sphere. Through policy analysis and commentary, he explores how technological change and regulatory responses reshape the conditions for public discourse online.He holds an M.Sc. in Communication Studies and a B.A. in Political Science.
“GNI’s multistakeholder forum serves as an important bulwark for freedom of expression and privacy in the tech sector, fostering dialogue, shared learning, and accountability among companies, civil society, academics, and investors. By bringing together actors from across the digital ecosystem, it creates a space where complex challenges surrounding digital governance and fundamental rights can be addressed in a constructive and collaborative way. It is a great honour to contribute to this mission.” said Alexander Hohlfeld
Dan Arnaudo is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Getulio Vargas Foundation’s School of Communications in Rio and a Cybersecurity Fellow with the University of Washington. He is also a Senior Advisor with the BBC Media Action group developing new programming and networks, and has also consulted with a wide range of organizations on information and technology issues, including the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, the Carnegie Endowment, NYU and NASA. For eight years, he led the National Democratic Institute’s initiative on information integrity (Info/tegrity) as well as its work to build a collective of democracy supporting organizations to engage with tech companies, the Design 4 Democracy (D4D) Coalition, and also led its membership application in GNI. He managed NDI’s engagement as well as its broader approach to the tech industry.
He has dual masters degrees with the University of Washington’s Information School, and the Jackson School of International Studies, where his thesis and capstone work focused on Brazil’s model of Internet governance, including the application of the Marco Civil da Internet, its Internet Bill of Rights, as well as its Internet Steering Committee (CGI) and other laws, policies and initiatives. He has developed research, blogs, traditional media and an online profile to study and explain digital rights, information and media literacy, tech accountability and internet governance issues to a global audience. In 2017, he developed cutting edge research with the Oxford Internet Institute on Computational Propaganda in Brazil.
“I am excited to rejoin GNI in an independent capacity to explore the impact of new information technologies on democracy and human rights globally. Artificial intelligence, social media and other complex algorithmically driven systems are transforming our world, placing GNI and its membership at the heart of these debates on evolving technology, networks, and policies. I am eager to contribute my experience and perspective to help build a world that is more open, transparent, rights respecting and democratic for all.” said Dan Arnaudo.
Jen Weedon is a Researcher and Lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she co-teaches Foundations of Online Trust & Safety and conducts research on AI accountability, red teaming methodologies, and public interest AI. She is also a Founding Fellow of the Integrity Institute and a member of the Trust and Safety Teaching Consortium. Her current work focuses on evaluating the quality and integrity of AI-generated content and developing shared frameworks across research, civil society, and industry.
Previously, she spent over 15 years in platform governance and threat intelligence. At Niantic Labs, she led Red Teaming & Safety by Design efforts. At Meta, she worked on countering influence operations and protecting vulnerable users. Earlier, at Mandiant/FireEye, she authored influential reports on state-sponsored cyber threats.
Reflecting on her joining GNI, Ms. Weedon said, “One of the clearest lessons from years of tracking bad actors is that platform harms are rarely just an enforcement challenge: they’re a design challenge, too. GNI’s accountability framework takes both seriously, asking not just whether companies respond to harms, but whether they’re building and refining systems capable of preventing them. That’s the question I’ve structured my career around, and I’m excited to bring that lens to GNI’s work.”