Alex Rochefort is a PhD candidate in the Division of Emerging Media Studies at Boston University’s College of Communication. His research agenda focuses on platform governance, internet policy, and human rights. Alex's work incorporates perspectives from the media and public policy fields to explain the policymaking processes that shape private and public responses to issues in the online environment.

 

Alex's dissertation uses theories of the policymaking process to explain the emergence of digital platform regulation as a public policy concern in the United States. It also evaluates the main policy interventions now under consideration for the governance of digital platforms.

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His 2020 article on the regulation of social media platforms was published in the journal Communication Law & Policy. He has also coauthored a book chapter on the history of populism and misinformation in the United States and a journal article about the democratizing effects of new media technologies.

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In 2019 Alex was a Google Public Policy Fellow at Freedom House. There he wrote for their blog and provided research assistance with Freedom on the Net, the organization's flagship study of internet freedom issues around the globe. In 2020 and  2021 , Alex prepared the United States Report for Freedom on the Net. 

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From 2021-2022 Alex was a policy fellow with Ranking Digital Rights a non-profit at New America where he supported the organization's policy research and advocacy.

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Alex is currently a graduate student affiliate at the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 

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For more please see Alex's full CV.

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