Eileen Donahoe Appointed as US Special Envoy and Coordinator for Digital Freedom

The White House has named Eileen Donahoe as the special envoy and coordinator for digital freedom, a newly created position in the Department of State’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy. Her appointment took effect on Sept. 5.

Donahoe brings to the role her technical knowledge and foreign policy experience to oversee U.S. efforts aiming to ensure global digital freedom, digital inclusion, and information integrity and promote the adoption of values in technological governance, Nextgov/FCW reported.

Donahoe has served as executive director for the Global Digital Policy Incubator at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies since March 2017. The Global Digital Policy Incubator serves as a collaboration hub for the development of norms and policies that reinforce freedom, security and trust in the digital ecosystem. According to Stanford, Donahoe will take a leave of absence to perform her new duties.

The special envoy served as the first U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. She held the role from March 2010 to October 2013, during which she helped shape council resolutions that addressed international human rights and humanitarian law violations in Iran, Libya, Syria, Sri Lanka and North Korea.