Svea Windwehr

Assistant Director of EU Policy

Svea Windwehr is EFF's Assistant Director of EU Policy, focusing on issues related to platform regulation, user rights, surveillance, and artificial intelligence. Before joining EFF, Svea headed the Center for User Rights at the strategic litigation NGO "Society for Civil Rights" in Berlin, dedicated to strengthening and enforcing user rights. Previously, she worked at Google, was a Mercator Fellow at the German Ministry of Labour & Social Affairs and EFF, and served as an inter-institutional coordinator at the European Commission’s DG CONNECT. Svea is the co-chair of the nonprofit D64 – Center for Digital Progress e.V. and serves on the board of the German Digital Services Coordinator, which oversees the enforcement of the Digital Services Act. Svea studied political science, international affairs, and law in Maastricht and Berkeley, and holds a master's degree from the Internet Institute at the University of Oxford.

Email Address:

svea@eff.org

X handle:

@sveawindwehr

Deeplinks Posts by Svea

Deeplinks Blog by Christoph Schmon, Svea Windwehr | December 10, 2024

A Fundamental-Rights Centered EU Digital Policy: EFF’s Recommendations 2024-2029
- English
The European Union (EU) is a hotbed for tech regulation that often has ramifications for users globally. The focus of our work in Europe is to ensure that EU tech policy is made responsibly and lives up to its potential to protect users everywhere. As the new mandate of the...
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Deeplinks Blog by Svea Windwehr | October 7, 2024

Germany Rushes to Expand Biometric Surveillance
- English
- Deutsch
Germany is a leader in privacy and data protection, with many Germans being particularly sensitive to the processing of their personal data – owing to the country’s totalitarian history and the role of surveillance in both Nazi Germany and East Germany.
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Deeplinks Blog by Svea Windwehr, Jillian C. York | October 13, 2020

Thank You For Your Transparency Report, Here’s Everything That’s Missing
- English
- Español
Every major social media platform—from Facebook to Reddit, Instagram to YouTube—moderates and polices content shared by users. Platforms do so as a matter of self-interest, commercial or otherwise. But platforms also moderate user content in response to pressure from a variety of interest groups and/or governments. As a consequence, social...
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Deeplinks Blog by Svea Windwehr, Jillian C. York | October 8, 2020

Facebook’s Most Recent Transparency Report Demonstrates the Pitfalls of Automated Content Moderation
- English
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many social media platforms shifted their content moderation policies to rely much more heavily on automated tools. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube all ramped up their machine learning capabilities to review and identify flagged content in efforts to ensure the wellbeing...
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Deeplinks Blog by Katitza Rodriguez, Svea Windwehr | September 10, 2020

Workplace Surveillance in Times of Corona
- English
- Español
With numbers of COVID-19 infections soaring again in the United States and around the world, we have to learn how to manage its long-term ramifications for our economies. As people adjust to minimizing the risk of infections in everyday settings, one critical context is work. Even though millions have shifted...
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Deeplinks Blog by Svea Windwehr, Jillian C. York | August 27, 2020

One Database to Rule Them All: The Invisible Content Cartel that Undermines the Freedom of Expression Online
- English
Every year, millions of images, videos and posts that allegedly contain terrorist or violent extremist content are removed from social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. A key force behind these takedowns is the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), an industry-led initiative that seeks to “prevent...
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Deeplinks Blog by Svea Windwehr, Christoph Schmon, Jillian C. York | August 27, 2020

Our EU Policy Principles: User Controls
- English
- Español
As the EU is gearing up for a major reform of key Internet regulation, we are introducing the principles that will guide our policy work surrounding the Digital Services Act (DSA). We believe the DSA is a key opportunity to change the Internet for the better; to question the paradigm...
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Deeplinks Blog by Svea Windwehr, Jillian C. York | July 30, 2020

Turkey's New Internet Law Is the Worst Version of Germany's NetzDG Yet
- English
- Türkçe
Update: This post has been corrected as of August 1, 2020 to accurately reflect the details of the NetzDG.For years, free speech and press freedoms have been under attack in Turkey. The country has the distinction of being the world’s largest jailer of journalists and has in recent...
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Deeplinks Blog by Svea Windwehr, Christoph Schmon | July 27, 2020

Our EU Policy Principles: Procedural Justice
- English
- Español
As the EU is gearing up for a major reform of key Internet regulation, we are introducing the principles that will guide our policy work surrounding the Digital Services Act. In this post, we set out our vision for the rules that should govern how Internet platforms engage with user...
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Deeplinks Blog by Svea Windwehr, Christoph Schmon | July 6, 2020

EFF Joins Coalition Calling On the EU to Introduce Interoperability Rules
- English
Today, EFF sent a joint letter to European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, highlighting the enormous potential of interoperability to help achieve the EU’s goals for Europe’s digital future. EFF joins a strong coalition of organizations representing European civil society organizations, entrepreneurs, and SMEs. We are calling on...
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