Emma Llansó
she/her
Emma Llansó is the Director of CDT’s Free Expression Project, where she works to promote law and policy that support Internet users’ free expression rights in the United States, Europe, and around the world. Emma’s work spans many subjects, including human trafficking, privacy and online harassment, terrorist propaganda, and disinformation. She has a particular focus on the capabilities and limitations of automation, including machine learning techniques, in content moderation and analysis of online speech.
Emma leads CDT’s legislative advocacy and amicus activity focused on protecting fundamental rights to freedom of expression and preserving strong intermediary liability protections as a core element of legal frameworks that support free expression online. Emma also works to develop content policy best practices with user-generated content services, including meaningful transparency, appeals, and remedy procedures from ICT companies as they enforce their own content policies and Terms of Service. Emma also focuses on emerging co-regulatory and voluntary collaborative initiatives around content moderation and the consequences these have for people’s access to information and opportunities to speak online.
Emma is a member of the Freedom Online Coalition Advisory Network, the Christchurch Call Advisory Network, and has served on the Board of the Global Network Initiative.
Emma joined CDT in 2009 as the Bruce J. Ennis First Amendment Fellow; her fellowship project focused on legal and policy advocacy in support of minors’ First Amendment rights in the US. She earned a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Delaware and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Emma is a member of the New York State Bar.
