Rotem Medzini

I am a PhD Candidate in Public Policy at the Federmann School of Public Policy and Government and a Research Fellow at The Cyber Law Program, HUJI Cyber Security Research Center, both at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In my Ph.D. project, supervised by Prof. David Levi-Faur, I am investigating Internet policy by regulatory intermediaries, as I am interested to better understand why and how regulation grows online, and how online platforms influence society and how society should regulate online platforms. Among my research interests are social media and digital content regulation, information privacy law and policy, regulation theory, online governance and self-regulation, intellectual property, and virtual reality. In my research projects, I combine methods and understandings from regulation theory, law, and network system theory to analyze how actors within different Internet regimes hold a regulatory capacity capable to regulate information and content flow. In one of my capacities, I am also a researcher at The Israel Democratic Institute investigating how to combat hate-crimes and xenophobia on social media.

Before arriving at the Hebrew University, I received my JSM from Stanford Law School and the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies (SPILS). At Stanford Law School, I wrote my thesis (with Honors) on how the regulation of the Federal Trade Commission influenced the privacy-related practices of Facebook and Google. In addition, I also hold a LL.B. and a LL.M both from the University of Haifa and both in the field of Law & Technology. At the University of Haifa, I was a research fellow, as well as, the coordinator of the Haifa Center for Law and Technology and of the Cyber Forum, a joint project of the Haifa Center for Law & Technology (HCLT) and the Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions. During my studies, I received several awards, fellowships, and scholarships from Stanford Law School, the Federmann School, the Cyber-law project at the Hebrew University, and the Haifa Center for Law and Technology. Alongside my academic achievements, I also took part in Internet policy making in the Israeli arena. I clerked with the Commissioner of the Israeli Law, Information, and Technology Authority (The Israel Data Protection Authority) at the Israeli Department of Justice, and for seven years acted as one of the project leaders of the Israel affiliate team of Creative Commons.