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Rebecca MacKinnon | |
|---|---|
.jpg) MacKinnon in 2021 | |
| Born | (1969-09-16)September 16, 1969 (age 56) Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, author, researcher |
| Awards | Goldsmith Book Prize |
Rebecca MacKinnon (born September 16, 1969) is an American author, researcher, and Internet freedom advocate, and the co-founder of the citizen media networkGlobal Voices. She is notable as a formerCNNjournalist who headed the CNN bureaus inBeijing and later inTokyo. She is on the board of directors of theCommittee to Protect Journalists,[1] a founding board member of theGlobal Network Initiative[2] the founding director of the Ranking Digital Rights project at theNew America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, and is the Vice President for Global Advocacy at theWikimedia Foundation.
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MacKinnon was born inBerkeley, California. When she was three years old, MacKinnon's family moved toTempe, Arizona, where her father, Stephen R. MacKinnon, had taken a job as Professor of Chinese History atArizona State University. Her parents' academic research careers led her to pass most of her primary school years inDelhi,India,Hong Kong, andBeijing,China, before moving back to Arizona for middle and high school. She graduated fromTempe High in 1987.
She graduatedmagna cum laude fromHarvard University in 1991 with a B.A. in Government. After graduating, she served as aFulbright scholar inTaiwan, where she also worked as aNewsweekstringer.
MacKinnon joined CNN in 1992 as Beijing Bureau Assistant and moved up to Producer/Correspondent by 1997 and Bureau Chief by 1998.[3] In 2001 she became Tokyo Bureau Chief. During her time with CNN, she interviewed notable leaders includingJunichiro Koizumi,Dalai Lama,Pervez Musharraf, andMohammad Khatami.
In the spring of 2004, MacKinnon was a fellow of theJoan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy atHarvard Kennedy School.[4] That summer, she joinedHarvard Law School'sBerkman Center for Internet & Society as a Research Fellow, where she remained until December 2006.[5] Among her projects at the Berkman Center, MacKinnon foundedGlobal Voices Online in collaboration withEthan Zuckerman.[6]
In January 2007 she joined theJournalism and Media Studies Center at theUniversity of Hong Kong, where she remained until January 2009.[7] From February 2009 to January 2010, she conducted research as an Open Society Fellow, funded byGeorge Soros'Open Society Institute.[8] Then in February 2010 she joinedPrinceton University'sCenter for Information Technology Policy where she was a visiting fellow, working on a book about the future of freedom in the Internet age.[9] Regarding the Middle East, MacKinnon wrote that "the Internet empowers people and helps to bring about the peaceful changes associated with the Arab Spring".[10]
In September 2010, MacKinnon became a Bernard L. Schwartz fellow at theNew America Foundation.[11] She is the Founding Director of the think tank's Ranking Digital Rights project which ranks the world's most powerful Internet, mobile, and telecommunications, companies on their respect for users' rights, with a focus on free expression and privacy.
In January 2007, MacKinnon joined the inauguralWikimedia Foundation Advisory Board,[12] where she remained until December 2012.[13]
In September 2021, MacKinnon joined the Foundation as its inaugural Vice President of Global Advocacy;[14] she was compensated $290,118 in 2024 and $276,218 in 2023 for her role.[15]
MacKinnon's first book,Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom, was published byBasic Books in January 2012 and won theGoldsmith Book Prize. In an interview, she said that she argues in the book (among other things) that:[16]
