Ron Deibert
“In order for us to deal with [the climate change] problem on a global scale, as well as things like pandemics, we need a communications ecosystem through which we can debate and share ideas. Right now, what we have is entirely dysfunctional to those aims.”
Ronald Deibert, (OOnt, PhD, University of British Columbia) is Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security.
At a time when ubiquitous use of information technology has led to increasing and widespread abuses of power by governments and the private sector, Ron Deibert has been a leader in pushing back. He is internationally renowned and respected for identifying emerging threats to civil society and democracy in the digital space. Under Deibert’s direction, the CL conducts pioneering, peer-reviewed research, and pursues high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security. The CL’s published outputs are widely seen as an early warning system identifying rising threats to human rights. Deibert is leading the development of the world’s first Digital Accountability program which will strengthen the CL’s capacity to respond to and anticipate digital trends, and establish an applied research and education model that is both sustainable and replicable to support the growing rights and digital accountability movement.
(photo Ⓒ Riley Stewart)
Learn more about his work at https://citizenlab.ca
