Rebecca MacKinnon

Biography

I am currently a Bernard Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC, where I conduct research, writing and advocacy on global Internet policy, free expression, and the impact of digital technologies on human rights. Due to my background and prior experience (see below), I am also considered a leading expert on Chinese Internet censorship. My first book, Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom, will be published by Basic Books in January 2012.

I am co-founder of Global Voices Online, a global citizen media network. I serve on the Boards of Directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Global Network Initiative, a multi-stakeholder initiative to advance principles of freedom of expression and privacy in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

Fluent in Mandarin Chinese (thanks to two years in a Chinese primary school and parents who made sure I didn't forget what I'd learned), I worked as a journalist for CNN in Beijing for nine years, serving as CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 1998-2001 and then moved to Japan where I was CNN’s Tokyo Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 2001-03. From 2004-06 I was a Research Fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, where I started researching Chinese Internet censorship and corporate responsibility issues, in addition to launching Global Voices Online. In 2007 and 2008 I served on the faculty of the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Centre, where I taught online journalism and conducted research on Chinese Internet censorship. During that time I was also Project Lead for Creative Commons Hong Kong In 2009 I continued my research and writing as an Open Society Institute Fellow, and in the Spring of 2010 I was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy.

Selected writings beyond the blog...

• Online piracy laws must preserve Web freedom, CNN.com, December 14, 2011.
• Corporate Accountability in Networked Asia, (PDF) in Access Contested: Security, Identity, and Resistance in Asian Cyberspace by the Open Net Initiative and published December 2011 by MIT Press.
• Stop the Great Firewall of America, The New York Times, November 15, 2011.
• Squelching social media after riots a dangerous idea, CNN.com, August 15, 2011.
• China's "Networked Authoritarianism" Journal of Democracy, April 2011, Volume 22, Number 2.
• Q. & A. with Rebecca MacKinnon: Internet in China with Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, February 22, 2011
• Internet Freedom in the Age of Assange, Foreign Policy, February 17, 2011.
• Internet wasn't real hero of Egypt, CNN.com, February 12, 2011.
• WikiLeaks, Amazon and the new threat to internet speech, CNN.com, December 3, 2010.
• No Quick Fixes for Internet Freedom, Wall Street Journal Asia, November 19, 2010.
• Networked Authoritarianism in China and Beyond: Implications for global Internet freedom, Conference paper presented at: "Liberation Technology in Authoritarian Regimes" Sponsored by the Hoover Institution & the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), Stanford University, October 11-12, 2010
• “China’s Information Control Practices and the Implications for the United States”, Testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, June 30, 2010
• Liberty or Safety? Both-or Neither, IEEE Spectrum, May 2010.
• In China, Bing's turn to show some spine,CNN.com, March 24, 2010.
• “Google and Internet Control in China", Testimony submitted to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, March 24, 2010.
• “The Google Predicament: Transforming U.S. Cyberspace Policy to Advance Democracy, Security, and Trade”, Testimony before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, United States House of Representatives, March 10, 2010
• “Global Internet Freedom and the Rule of Law, Part II”, Testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, March 2, 2010
• Google Gets on the Right Side of History, The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2010.
• Are China's demands for Internet 'self-discipline' spreading to the West?, McClatchy Newspapers syndicated service, January 18, 2010.
• Will Google Stand Up to France and Itally Too?The Guardian, January 13, 2010.
• The Power of the Internet in China, (PDF) review of a book by Guobin Yang, Far Eastern Economic Review, September 18, 2009.
• After the Green Dam Victory (PDF), CSIS Freeman Report June/July 2009.
• The Green Dam Phenomenon (PDF)Asian Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2009.
• Firewalls to Freedom (with Evgeny Morozov), Project Syndicate February, 2009.
• China's Censorship 2.0: How Companies Censor Bloggers, First Monday, February 2009.
• Dear President Obama: In Talking to China, Remember its People Huffington Post, January 29, 2009.
• The Chinese Censorship Foreigners Don't See Asian Wall Street Journal, August 14, 2008.
• "Blogs and China Correspondence: Lessons About Global Information Flows,"Chinese Journal of Communication, Vol. 1, Issue 2, October 2008 Free draft PDF here.
• "Cyber Zone: how China's online pioneers are pushing the boundaries of free speech." Index on Censorship, Volume 37, Issue 2 May 2008 , pages 82 - 89. Free version here.
• "Asia's Fight For Web Rights" (PDF), Far Eastern Economic Review, April 2008.
• "Teaching Multimedia Journalism" and "Valued Classroom Resources," Nieman Reports Vol. 6, No. 1, Spring 2008.
• “Flatter World and Thicker Walls? Blogs, Censorship and Civic Discourse in China ” , In Drezner, D., and H. Farrell, eds., Special Issue: WILL THE REVOLUTION BE BLOGGED? Public Choice. Volume 134, Numbers 1-2 / January, 2008. (Online for subscribers only.) Free draft here (PDF).
• "Shi Tao, Yahoo!, and the lessons for corporate social responsibility" (PDF), a working paper presented December 2007 at the International Conference on Information Technology and Social Responsibility, Chinese University, Hong Kong.
• "Blogging, Journalism and Credibility: The Future of Global Participatory Media" (PDF of English original) in Ono, Yoshikuni, ed., On Global Communication, (Kyoto: Seikai Shisosya 2007) [In Japanese].
• Blogs and China Correspondence: How foreign correspondents covering China use blogs (PDF). Paper presented at the World Journalism Education Conference, Singapore, June 25-28, 2007.
• Internet Intervention: How Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Sold Their Souls to China, GOOD Magazine.
• Blogs and bridges: Citizen participation in global journalism RTHK Media Digest.
• Gathering Voices to Share With a Worldwide Online Audience (with Ethan Zuckerman), Nieman Reports Winter 2006.
• Race to the Bottom: Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship (Human Rights Watch, August 2006) (Primary author)
• The Self-Expression Sector, The Nation, (July 3, 2006 issue).
• Washington Post Editorial: "Shattering the China Dream" (PDF 93.1K)
• The Nation.com: America's Online Censors
• Newsweek International: Censorship, Inc.
• The Great Firewall of China
• China's Internet: Let a Thousand Filters Bloom YaleGlobal 28 June 2005
• The Precarious State of TV News Nieman Reports, Spring 2005
• Blogging, Journalism & Credibility: The Conference Report (PDF)
• Chinese Cell Phone Breaches North Korean Hermit Kingdom YaleGlobal, 17 January 2005
• Global Voices: International Bloggers Start Connecting the Dots | Personal Democracy Forum
• Priorities of American Global TV JAMCO International Symposium, November-December 2004
• Asia Times
• Blogging North Korea Nieman Reports Fall 2004
• "Worldwide Conversation"- Research paper for Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy (PDF)

Video (Note: this section and the Audio section have not been updated since 2008; they will eventually be updated.)

• Free Culture and Free Speech: Why strong and vibrant free culture communities are important for freedom of expressionLecture delivered January 2008 at Workshop on Asia and Commons Taipei, Taiwan.
• DIGITAL AGE - WNYE/CH 25, IN NY: Are Bloggers as Trustworthy as Mainstream Media?
• DIGITAL AGE - WNYE/CH 25, IN NY: Did Google Sell Out?
• WGBH: Thinking Big: News in the Digital Age
• NewsHour:Google in China Raises Censorship Issues
• CBS Online Video: Rights of Chinese Internet Users

Audio

• Diane Rehm Show: Internet Censorship in China
• KQED Pacific Time Commentary: Microsoft Bows to Chinese Blog Censorship
• Pop!Tech talk: The Internet in China: Change goes both ways
• The Connection: Cyber-dissidents
• Echo Chamber Project: Talking about journalism, blogs, and Global Voices.
• Global Voices Online Radio Report
• WFIU: Profiles
• On the Media: N.Korea