Executive Director, Internet Sans FrontièresFounding member, Meta Oversight BoardArchitect of Lex Platformia
Book Julie to speak About Julie
Julie Owono is a lawyer by training and one of the leading authorities on technology accountability. For more than a decade she has led Internet Sans Frontières, the digital rights organization defending freedom of expression online, with a particular focus on Africa and the Global South.
She is a founding member of the Meta Oversight Board, the first independent body with binding authority over content decisions on Facebook and Instagram, and the only working model of external accountability for a major platform. Her concept of Lex Platformia, a framework for how technology companies generate their own rules and why independent oversight is essential to them, has become a reference point in the accountability debate.
She founded the Content Policy & Society Lab at Stanford University, is an affiliate of Harvard's Berkman Klein Center, and has advised UNESCO, the World Economic Forum and the U.S. Department of State on AI and platform governance. She is an advisor to Latimer.ai, the AI platform built to reflect Black and brown histories and perspectives.
Julie brings the view from inside the world's only independent oversight body for a major platform, and from a decade defending digital rights on the ground. Practical, candid, and built for decision-makers, in English or French.
Building the operational infrastructure for responsible AI: who checks the checkers, and what it takes to make oversight real rather than decorative.
Lessons from inside the Meta Oversight Board: how binding independent review actually works, where it strains, and what it means for the next generation of platforms.
A human-rights framework for technology governance that outlasts any single CEO, government or news cycle.
Independent oversight in an age of AI: beyond self-regulation and state control, a model that companies and citizens can both live with.
Why governance and digital rights protect reputation and value, and how boards and executives can get ahead of the next crisis.
Why book Julie
Not commentary from the outside: binding decisions on the world's largest platforms, advice to governments and multilateral bodies, and campaigns that changed outcomes for real users.
French-Cameroonian, trained as a lawyer, and having lived and worked across Europe, Africa and the United States, she is fluent in the perspectives most tech conversations leave out.
Audiences leave with a framework they can use on Monday, whether they are regulators, executives, engineers or students.
Formats
Keynote · Fireside chat · Panel · Moderation and chairing of high-level dialogues · Executive briefings · Virtual sessions. Delivered in English or French.
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Platform rules, independent oversight, and the mechanics of accountable moderation at scale.
From UNESCO's first global AI ethics standard to today's accountability infrastructure.
Internet shutdowns, censorship and access, litigated and campaigned on for over a decade.
Business and human rights standards applied to technology companies.
Convening companies, governments, academia and civil society around hard problems.
Advice to governments and multilateral bodies on democracy, speech and emerging tech.
Regular contributor and commentator for NPR, the BBC, CNBC, Al Jazeera, France 24 and Just Security.