New America's Ranking Digital Rights Announces Leadership Change

WASHINGTON, D.C. — New America announces a leadership change for its research program Ranking Digital Rights (RDR). Jessica Dheere, RDR’s current deputy director, will assume the role of director. Rebecca MacKinnon will stay on as founding director into 2021.

A former journalist and prominent advocate in the digital rights field since 2008, Dheere is the co-founder and former director of the Beirut-based organization SMEX, now the leading NGO in the Arab region working at the intersection of technology and human rights. As a 2018-19 fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Dheere also founded CYRILLA, a global database of laws pertaining to digital rights.

“Before she joined us a year ago, I had the pleasure of collaborating with Jessica for several years as the leader of an allied organization,” MacKinnon said. “Thanks to her own lived experience of how tech companies affect people across borders and cultures, Jessica is uniquely qualified to lead RDR's fast-growing, hardworking, globally distributed team into a new phase of growth and impact.” 

“She brings deep knowledge of issues at the intersection of human rights and technology both internationally and in the U.S.,” said New America CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter. “Her experience in organizational management is also a great asset as RDR expands and finds new partners. We know that RDR will flourish with her at the helm.”

MacKinnon conceived and founded RDR at New America in 2013. The annual RDR Corporate Accountability Index, launched in 2015, offers the only year-on-year ranking of the world’s most powerful digital platforms and telecommunications companies on policies and practices affecting users’ human rights, such as privacy and freedom of expression. The RDR Index has become a widely recognized global standard for corporate accountability in the tech sector, and a key resource for policymakers, investors, and civil society organizations advocating in the field.

With Dheere moving into the role of director, MacKinnon will continue to work with RDR into 2021 as founding director, focusing on connecting RDR's work with current policy debates about how technology should be governed and regulated, to ensure that it supports human rights and democracy around the world.

A former CNN bureau chief in Beijing and Tokyo, MacKinnon has been a leading advocate for freedom of expression and privacy online in various academic and non-profit institutions since 2004. She is co-founder of the citizen media network Global Voices and a founding member of the Global Network Initiative. In 2012, while in residence as a senior fellow at New America, she wrote the award-winning book Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom, which delivered an early and prescient warning that unchecked government actions and unaccountable company practices posed a threat to the future of democracy and human rights.

“Rebecca is a pioneer in pushing for corporate accountability in the technology sector,” said Slaughter. “We have been enormously proud of her work in founding and leading RDR over the past seven years. She has made a lasting contribution to enhancing democratic accountability in the digital age.”

“It is an incredible privilege to be entrusted with RDR’s mission, especially at this critical moment,” said Dheere. “We see 2021-22 as a time for us to bring our rich body of research and policy recommendations to bear as technology companies continue to play a pivotal role in the protection of human rights, civil liberties, free and fair elections, and democratic institutions. I’m both honored and excited to carry this vision forward with our remarkable team.”

About New America

New America is dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation’s highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change and seizing the opportunities those changes create. Read the rest of our story, or see what we've been doing recently in our latest Annual Report.

About RDR

Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) works to promote freedom of expression and privacy on the internet by creating global standards and incentives for companies to respect and protect users’ rights. We do this by ranking the world’s most powerful internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies on relevant commitments and policies in the annual RDR Corporate Accountability Index and through policy recommendations in reports, such as our recent “It’s the Business Model” series. We work with companies as well as advocates, researchers, investors, and policymakers to establish and advance global standards for corporate accountability.

To learn more, please visit us online at https://rankingdigitalrights.org/ and on Twitter @rankingrights