Global Internet Freedom Project Initiatives

The Global Internet Freedom Clinical Project at GW Law empowers students to advance digital rights through hands-on legal research and advocacy. Under the "Engaging Tech for Internet Freedom (ETIF)" initiative, students collaborated with Article 19 to develop multilingual guidelines for civil society organizations working with ICT companies in authoritarian and high-risk regions, promoting business and human rights principles amid internet repression. 

In Pakistan, the Clinic’s partnership with journalist Farieha Aziz and advocacy group Bolo Bhi led to the creation of the Digital Privacy Rights Resource (DPRR), a comprehensive platform analyzing privacy challenges, surveillance abuses, and comparative legal frameworks, offering critical insights for global digital rights advocacy.

Learn more about the Global Internet Freedom Clinical Project.

Research and Academic Initiatives

• Laura Holt, Rebecca Nica & Arturo Carrillo, “Decriminalizing Defamation: A Comparative Law Study,” GW Law International Law & Policy Brief (2022).
• Akhilesh Pillalamarri& Cody Stanley, “Online Content Regulation: An International Comparison,” GW Law International Law & Policy Brief (2021).
• Arturo J. Carrillo, “The Price of Prevention: Anti-Terrorism Pre-Crime Measures and International Human Rights Law,” Virginia Journal of International Law (2020).
• Partnership with GW’s Program on Extremism

Advocacy

• CHRL Clinic & Global Network Initiative (GNI), Country Legal Framework Reference (CLFR).
• A More Perfect Internet: Promoting Digital Civility and Combating Cyber-Violence - Discussion with Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University

Events

• Challenges to Preventing Extremism Online and Offline
• A More Perfect Internet: Addressing Digital Incivility, Cyber-Violence, and "Fake News"
• Use of the Internet for Terrorist Purposes: The U.S. Government's Response
• Hate Crimes in Cyberspace
• Free Speech, Blasphemy, and the Anti-Muslim YouTube Video
• Arturo Carrillo, Organizer & Moderator, Panel: “New World Borders: How Jurisdiction Affects Human Rights Online.” GLOBAL NETWORK INITIATIVE LEARNING FORUM, Washington D.C., Sept. 18, 2019.
• The First Amendment as Killer App: How Law Made Silicon Valley

Research and Academic Initiatives

• Arturo J. Carrillo, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place? ICT Companies, Armed Conflict, and International Law,” Global Network Initiative Blog (2022).
• Protecting Free Speech and Due Process Values on Dominant Social Media Platforms, Hastings L. J. (2022).
• The Varieties of Counterspeech and Censorship on Social Media, 54 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 2491 (2021) – Dawn Nunziato.
• Misinformation Mayhem: Social Media Platforms’ Efforts to Combat Medical and Political Misinformation, 19 First Amendment L. Rev.  32 (2020) – Dawn Nunziato.

Advocacy

• Arturo Carrillo, Legal Symposia on Freedom of Expression, Internet Freedom, National and Cyber Security, Fight Against Disinformation and Sanctions, Kyiv, Ukraine (May 2020)[virtual].

Events

• Arturo Carrillo, Moderator, Panel: “Discerning the Rules: The Application of International Law to State Cyberattacks." AMERICAN SOCIETY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, Washington D.C., Feb. 27, 2020.
• A More Perfect Internet: Addressing Digital Incivility, Cyber-Violence, and "Fake News"

Research and Academic Initiatives

• Arturo J. Carrillo, Follow the Leader? Comparative Law Study of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation’s Impact in Latin America (with Matías Jackson), Vienna Journal of International Constitutional Law  (2022).

Advocacy

• Global Network Initiative (GNI), Country Legal Framework Reference (CLFR).

Events

• Arturo Carrillo, Moderator & Panelist, “Promise or Peril? Towards an International Data Protection Regime.” VIRTUAL ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, June 25-26, 2020.
• Broader Implications of Apple vs. the FBI for Cyber Security and Privacy
• System and Conscience: NSA Bulk Surveillance and the Problem of Freedom
• Big Surveillance: What the NSA is Doing, Why it Matters, and How to Address It
• A Conversation on International Cyberspace Strategy with Howard Schmidt
• Guest Speaker: Dr. Ian Brown

Research and Academic Initiatives

• Arturo J. Carrillo, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place? ICT Companies, Armed Conflict, and International Law,” Global Network Initiative Blog.
• I'm Still Dancing: The Continued Efficacy of First Amendment Precedent and Values for New-School Regulation - Dawn C. Nunziato
• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Proposed Principles of Digital Due Process for ICT Companies - Dawn C. Nunziato
• The Beginning of the End of Internet Freedom - Dawn C. Nunziato

Advocacy

• Art. 19 Project
• Amazon Report/GNI board participation AC

Events

• 2014 Academic Conference on ICT Industry Self-Regulation & Human Rights
• Tech@State: Internet Freedom Conference
• Convergence: Digital Due Process for Protecting Internet Speech
• The Internet in the 21st Century Free Speech, Blasphemy, and the Anti-Muslim
• Transatlantic Conference on Global Online Freedom and Corporate Responsibility
• A Conversation with Rebecca MacKinnon
• Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression
• A Conversation with Dunja Mijatović

Research and Academic Initiatives

• The Fourth Year of Forgetting: The Troubling Expansion of the Right to Be Forgotten, 39 U. Pa. J. Int'l Law 1 (2018) – Dawn C. Nunziato.
• Forget About It? Harmonizing European and American Protections for Privacy, Free Speech, and Due Process - Dawn C. Nunziato

Events

• Should There Be a Right to be Forgotten? Arturo Carrillo, Panelist, “Exploring the Right to Be Forgotten,” American Society of International Law, Washington D.C., September 16, 2014.

Research and Academic Initiatives

• Arturo J. Carrillo, Are There Universal Standards for Network Neutrality?, University of Pittsburgh Law Review ( 2019).
• Supplemental Statement on Net Neutrality and Media Diversity - Arturo J. Carrillo
• Having Your Cake and Eating it Too? Zero-Rating, Net Neutrality and International Law - Arturo J. Carrillo
• The Price of Paid Prioritization: The International and Domestic Consequences of the Failure to Protect Net Neutrality in the United States - Arturo J. Carrillo and Dawn C. Nunziato
• Are There Universal Standards for Net Neutrality? - Arturo J. Carrillo
• Zero Rating and the Holy Grail: Universal Standards for Net Neutrality - Arturo J. Carrillo
• Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age - Dawn C. Nunziato
• First Amendment Values for the Internet - Dawn C. Nunziato

Advocacy

• Collaboration with RSF (Reporters Without Borders)

Events

• Zero-rating and Net Neutrality: Lessons from Theory and Practice
• The Net Neutrality and Global Internet Freedom Conference

Research and Academic Initiatives

• Justice Between Authors - Dawn C. Nunziato

Advocacy

• Complicity in Censorship?: Amazon and the Suppression of Online Expression in Ecuador -  Report by GW Civil and Human Rights Law Clinic

Events

• Arturo Carrillo, Invited Speaker, Pitt Law Review's 80th Anniversary Symposium: “The Net Without Neutrality: Economic, Regulatory, and Informational Access Impacts,”  UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH LAW SCHOOL, Pittsburgh, March 1, 2019.
• Arturo Carrillo, Net neutrality implementation in Latin America, Regional Workshop on Media Ownership Concentration in Latin America, Reporters Without Borders, Buenos Aires, Argentina (April 2019)

Research and Academic Initiatives

• Arturo J. Carrillo, “Public Interest Law Clinics and Digital Rights: An Action Plan for the 21st Century,” in Proceedings of the University of Chile's First National Conference on Clinical Legal Education (2021).

Events

• Arturo Carrillo, UNIVERSITY OF CHILE NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION. Presentation: “Public Interest Law Clinics and Digital Rights: An Action Plan for the 21st Century,” Dec. 11, 2020 [virtual].

• Ethical Tech Initiative
• GW Civil and Human Rights Law Clinic