Daniel O’Maley is the Senior Digital Governance Specialist at the Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy. In this capacity he leads CIMA’s public engagement and research at the intersection of technology, news media, and human rights.

With more than a decade of experience in tech policy, internet governance, and digital democracy, Daniel analyzes the ways that new digital technologies including the internet are reshaping information ecosystems globally. At CIMA he has written reports on and overseen research about topics including net neutrality and zero-rating, data protection and digital privacy, targeted surveillance and spyware, content moderation and platform governance, and the use of encrypted messaging apps (EMAs) to disseminate news.

He frequently writes and speaks about these issues and has presented at the UN’s Internet Governance Forum (IGF), RightsCon, and the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa. Daniel is also currently serving as the elected co-chair of the Dynamic Coalition for the Sustainability of Journalism and News Media, a working group under the auspices of the IGF. He also is a co-lead of the Open Internet for Democracy Initiative, which is a joint collaboration that seeks to empower democracy advocates around the globe to engage both locally and internationally in democratic digital governance.

Daniel holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Vanderbilt University where his ethnographic research explored how Brazilian digital rights activists used the internet and social media platforms to foster increased citizen participation in the policy making process. Prior to CIMA, Daniel worked at the Center for International Private Enterprise, the Progressive Policy Institute, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has also been the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship.