Yaël D. Eisenstat
Born
United States
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of California, Davis (B.A.);
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (M.A.)
Occupation(s)Outgoing Vice President of the Anti-Defamation League Center for Technology & Society; Incoming Senior Policy Fellow at Cybersecurity for Democracy
Organization(s)Facebook (former);
Berggruen Institute (former)

Yaël Eisenstat is an American national security strategist and democracy advocate who works at the intersection of technology, policy, and democracy. She is an outgoing Vice President at the Anti-Defamation League, where she led the ADL Center for Technology & Society from September 2022 through January 2024.[1][2] On Tuesday, January 2, 2024, Eisenstat announced that she will be joining Cybersecurity for Democracy as its Senior Policy Fellow, where she will focus on democratic discourse and AI-powered political messaging in advance of the 2024 presidential election.[3]

Prior to her tenure at the Anti-Defamation League, Eisenstat served as the Senior Advisor for Tech and Democracy at the Institute for Security and Technology, and as a Future of Democracy Fellow at the Berggruen Institute.[4] She is a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, National Security Advisor to former Vice President Joe Biden, and diplomat. In 2019 and 2020, she was a visiting fellow at Cornell Tech, where she examined and taught on the impact of technology on media and democracy.[5] From 2017 to 2019, she was an adjunct assistant professor at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University. Between June and November 2018, she was the Global Head of Elections Integrity Ops for political advertising at Facebook.[6] She has become a vocal critic of the company since leaving and is known for her efforts to promote social media platform transparency and accountability.[7]

Education

Eisenstat holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of California, Davis and an M.A. in International Affairs and African Studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.[8]

Career

As Vice President at the Anti-Defamation League and head of the Center for Technology & Society, Yaёl leads ADL's effort to hold tech companies accountable for hate and extremism on their platforms. She works to ensure that online spaces are safe, respectful and inclusive, and helps to lift the voices and experiences of those most impacted by online hate and harassment.[1][2] As a former CIA analyst and Foreign Service Officer, Eisenstat has worked in many different government agencies, specializing particularly on national security issues in the Middle East and Africa.[9] For nearly a decade, she has worked in counterterrorism and intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency. From 2004 to 2006, she was a Foreign Service Officer in Nairobi, Kenya, and became Senior Intelligence Officer at the National Counterterrorism Center from 2006 to 2009. In 2009, she was appointed as Special Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden in national security affairs.[10][11] One year later, she worked as an embedded analyst for the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York. Eisenstat then spent two years working at ExxonMobil in Irving, Texas from 2013 to 2015.[12]

She founded political risk firm Kilele Global in 2016[13] and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[14]

In 2017, Yaël Eisenstat was included in Forbes' list of "40 Women to Watch Over 40."[15]

From June to November 2018, Yaël Eisenstat was the global head of elections integrity ops for political advertising at Facebook.[6] She has become a vocal critic of the company since leaving.[16][17]

In 2019, she was Policy Advisor for the Center for Humane Technology,[18] as well as visiting fellow at Cornell Tech's Digital Life Initiative.[19]

Media

Eisenstat has written for many major newspapers and magazines, including for the New York Times[20] and Time.[21] She has also appeared on CNN,[22] BBC, and other televised news networks.[23] She has been publicly critical of some of Facebook's activities and written outspoken pieces on the company as well as given interviews on it,[24][25] including about online voter suppression.[26]

In her articles for the New York Times and the Huffington Post, Eisenstat has criticized President Donald Trump's January 2017 speech to the Central Intelligence Agency as disrespectful and self-serving.[20][27][28]

Her TED Talk "How Facebook Profits from Polarization" was published online in August 2020.[29]

On 25 September 2020, Eisenstat was named as one of the 25 members of the "Real Facebook Oversight Board", an independent monitoring group over Facebook.[30]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Former Facebook executive turned critic joins top civil rights group". The Washington Post. 29 September 2022. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  2. 1 2 "ADL Announces Yael Eisenstat to Lead Center for Technology and Society". 29 September 2022. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  3. ↑ Edelson, Laura (2024-01-02). "Yaël Eisenstat Joins Cybersecurity for Democracy as Senior Policy Fellow, Focusing on Democratic…". Cybersecurity for Democracy. Retrieved 2024-01-04.
  4. ↑ "Yael Eisenstat". Berggruen. 22 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  5. ↑ "Tech Media Democracy".
  6. 1 2 "Yaël Eisenstat: 'Facebook is ripe for manipulation and viral misinformation'". TheGuardian.com. 26 July 2020.
  7. ↑ Eisenstat, Yaël (2023-06-16). "Breaking Open Tech's Black Box | TechPolicy.Press". Tech Policy Press. Retrieved 2024-01-04.
  8. ↑ "Yael Eisenstat". Forty Over 40. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  9. ↑ ""All-Round Badass Woman" – Yaël Eisenstat, Former CIA Analyst & Founder of Kilele". iHeart Radio. December 13, 2017. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  10. ↑ "Leading global tech thinkers land in Brisbane". Technology Decisions. May 14, 2018. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  11. ↑ Shin, Youjin (August 20, 2018). "Trump revoked a former CIA director's security clearance: Here's who has spoken out". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  12. ↑ "Trump and the Intelligence Community: The View from a Former CIA Analyst". Carnegie Council. March 13, 2017. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  13. ↑ "Home". kileleglobal.com.
  14. ↑ "Council on Foreign Relations".
  15. ↑ "Yael Eisenstat".
  16. ↑ "What This CIA Veteran Learned Helping Facebook With Elections". Wired.
  17. ↑ "I worked on political ads at Facebook. They profit by manipulating us". The Washington Post.
  18. ↑ "Yaël Eisenstat". Data61. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  19. ↑ "Digital Life Initiative team". Cornell Tech. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  20. 1 2 Eisenstat, Yaël (2017-01-24). "The Shocking Affront of Donald Trump's C.I.A. Stunt". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  21. ↑ Eisenstat, Yaël (June 17, 2016). "Former Intel. Official: American Hate Is a Bigger Threat Than Foreign Terrorism". Time. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  22. ↑ "Is Facebook like a chemical factory polluter? - CNN Video". CNN. 31 May 2020.
  23. ↑ "Yael Eisenstat". Myriad. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  24. ↑ Perry, Douglas (November 5, 2019). "Former CIA officer quit Facebook 'Elections Integrity' job after only 6 months, says company 'exploits our data'". Oregon Live. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  25. ↑ "i-worked-political-ads-facebook-they-profit-by-manipulating-us". The Washington Post.
  26. ↑ "How to combat online voter suppression". 25 June 2020.
  27. ↑ Date, S.V. (January 23, 2017). "Of Course The CIA Gave Trump Standing Ovations. He Never Let Them Sit". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  28. ↑ Ward, Chris (July 20, 2017). "What affect is tech having on society? An interview with Yael Eisenstat". The Next web. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  29. ↑ "Dear Facebook, this is how you're breaking democracy". 8 September 2020.
  30. ↑ "While Facebook works to create an oversight board, industry experts formed their own". NBC News. 25 September 2020.
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