Ibrahim is a Chevening Alumnus and an early-career Egyptian scholar specialising in AI governance, internet freedom, and platform regulation. As a Research Associate at the Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law at the University of Vienna, he contributes to EU and third-party-funded projects examining the intersection of AI, data protection, and human rights law. His professional journey includes engagements with notable institutions such as Columbia’s Global Freedom of Expression, Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, the Stimson Center, and Strathmore’s Centre for IP and IT Law, where he has developed comprehensive expertise at the nexus of law, policy, and technology. His current doctoral research investigates platform governance models through the lens of human rights jurisprudence, seeking to identify frameworks that balance effective regulation with human rights protection.

The Internet’s regulatory landscape has witnessed significant power shifts, with tech companies evolving from champions of a free Internet to dominant incumbents. This transformation has left users and public interest defenders challenging power imbalances in pursuit of digital justice. This research evaluates privatised and decentralised platform governance models through the lens of human rights jurisprudence, examining their efficacy in fostering a just digital sphere. The research critically analyses privatised governance mechanisms, including Meta’s Oversight Board and the EU Digital Service Act’s Out-of-court dispute settlement bodies (ODS). Simultaneously, the research explores decentralised platforms as an alternative governance model, where community-driven consensus mechanisms potentially shift power from state and corporate entities to users. The project employs an interdisciplinary methodology to evaluate how these governance frameworks address the fundamental tension between free expression and correlated rights and content moderation. By assessing their alignment with human rights principles, this research aims to identify governance approaches that foster a more equitable digital justice framework—one that balances effective governance with robust protection of human rights in our increasingly fragmented digital sphere.