Adrian Shahbaz

As Vice President of Research and Analysis, Adrian Shahbaz oversees the organization’s portfolio of annual publications and special reports. These include Freedom House’s flagship study, Freedom in the World, the widely consulted annual reports Freedom on the Net and Nations in Transit, and new streams of work on transnational repression, China’s global influence, election integrity, and media freedom.

Adrian previously served as Freedom House’s director for technology and democracy, leading the creation and expansion of a multidimensional program dedicated to monitoring the global state of human rights online, analyzing digital threats to election integrity, and advocating for a free and open internet.

He has authored or coauthored internet freedom analyses, including The Global Drive to Control Big Tech (2021), The Pandemic’s Digital Shadow (2020), The Crisis of Social Media (2019), and The Rise of Digital Authoritarianism (2018). Adrian has appeared on news outlets such as the BBC, CNN, and NPR, and his commentary has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and WIRED. Prior to joining Freedom House, he worked as a researcher at the UN Department of Political Affairs, the European Parliament, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He holds a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.

Featured Reports

Freedom on the Net

Freedom on the Net 2022: Countering an Authoritarian Overhaul of the Internet

Freedom on the Net 2021: The Global Drive to Control Big Tech

Freedom on the Net 2020: The Pandemic's Digital Shadow

Freedom on the Net 2019: The Crisis of Social Media

Freedom on the Net 2018: The Rise of Digital Authoritarianism

Freedom on the Net 2017: Manipulating Social Media to Undermine Democracy

Freedom on the Net 2016: Silencing the Messenger: Communication Apps under Pressure

Freedom on the Net 2015: Privatizing Censorship, Eroding Privacy

Freedom on the Net 2014: Tightening the Net: Governments Expand Online Controls

Other

False Panacea: Abusive Surveillance in the Name of Public Health

Information Isolation: Censoring the COVID-19 Outbreak

User Privacy or Cyber Sovereignty: Assessing the Human Rights Implications of Data Localization