The Global Network Initiative (GNI) is pleased to welcome Dr. Ifat Gazia and Dr. Nathalie Maréchal as individual expert members of the GNI Academic and Individual Expert Constituency.
“As we strive to truly put the ‘Global’ in the Global Network Initiative, we are thrilled to incorporate Ifat’s insights on Global Majority approaches to AI. Her expertise will be invaluable to our growing portfolio of work in this area,” said Jason Pielemeier, GNI’s Executive Director. “Nathalie has been a longtime contributor who has engaged with GNI from multiple perspectives and her return to GNI underscores the caliber of talent our network attracts.”
Dr. Ifat Gazia is a researcher working at the intersection of AI governance, privacy, and human rights, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law. Her research examines digital erasure: how technological systems suppress, exclude, or distort the knowledge and experiences of communities facing political repression. Her emerging work on “negotiated legibility” asks how communities can shape the terms under which their knowledge enters AI systems, distinguishing the right to remain private from exclusion imposed by states and technology companies.
Pointing to GNI’s leadership in tech company accountability, Gazia observed that:
“AI governance must address whose knowledge these systems draw on, whose experiences they leave out, and who has the power to decide. My work examines how censorship, surveillance, and digital erasure shape the information available to AI and how communities can exercise greater control over their representation. I look forward to working with GNI members to bring these questions into practical discussions of corporate accountability, privacy, and freedom of expression.”
Dr. Nathalie Maréchal studies technofascism and how we fight back. She currently works as Managing Policy Director of the Institute for Information, the Internet and Democracy (IIID) at Northeastern University. She is also a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights for the 2026-2027 academic year, sits on the Board of Directors of Check My Ads and on the Advisory Councils of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research and Open Media, and is a regular contributor to Tech Policy Press.
Reflecting on rejoining GNI in a new capacity, Maréchal remarked:
“GNI was founded at a time when the role of tech and telecom intermediaries in facilitating government repression and human rights violations was a niche topic. Today, collusion between the tech/telecom sector and the state is more flagrant than ever, and GNI plays a crucial role in facilitating dialogue between the private sector, nonprofits, and academics who share a commitment to free expression and privacy. Having participated in GNI’s nonprofit constituency in previous roles, I’m honored to now join the academic constituency as an independent researcher.”