About Jan Penfrat
I'm a digital policy expert, human rights activist and self-proclaimed Chief deGoogliser. I've been based in Brussels since 2010.
As Senior Policy Advisor for European Digital Rights (EDRi) I advise lawmakers on how to write tech laws that protect people, democracy and the planet. I also help other civil society organisations stop using Big Tech and—in doing so—regain digital self-determination.
In my spare time, I'm a co-founder and moderator of eupolicy.social, a Mastodon server for people from the EU policy bubble.
Recent writings
- European Digital Rights (2026): Feedback on an EU Strategy "Towards European open digital ecosystems"
- European Digital Rights (2025): Meta and X are going rogue. Here is what Europe should do now
- Euronews (2024): Delay, depress, destroy: How tech corporations subvert the EU's new digital laws
- Verfassungsblog (2022): The DSA fails to reign in the most harmful digital platform businesses - but it is still useful
- Die Zeit (2021): Facebooks Geschäftsmodell ist mit einem gesunden Internet unvereinbar
- Le Monde (2020): L'Europe a besoin de lois qui limitent le pouvoir des grandes entreprises du numérique sur nos vies
In the press
Contact me
Pronouns: he/him
Signal: jan09.44 (Why not WhatsApp?) Email: write-[my firstname]@[my lastname].net PGP key: B170 DFF3 7944 93D8 5172 4E83 7094 0C3F 5839 1D26 Fediverse: @ilumium@eupolicy.social Matrix: @jan:penfrat.net