Prof. Dr. Jeanette Hofmann

About

Jeanette Hofmann is a political scientist and heads the group “Politics of Digitalization” at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. She is Founding Director of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society and Professor of Internet Policy at the Freie Universität Berlin. As Principal Investigator at the Weizenbaum Institute, she heads the research group “Technology, Power and Domination”. She is a member of the Standing Committee on Digital Society at the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. From 2010 to 2013, she was an expert in the Enquete Commission Internet and Digital Society of the German Bundestag.

At the international level, she participated in the UN World Summit on the Information Society and the Internet Governance Forum. Her current research focuses on digitalisation and democracy as well as the emergence of internet policy in Germany. Her further research scrutinizes the regulation of the internet at the international level and “big data” as an object of analysis and as a quantifying form of regulation.

Memberships, committees and functions

• Supervisory Board Media Council. Deutschlandfunk (from January 2026 until December 2031)
• Member. Acatech (since October 2025)
• Advisory board. European New School of Digital Studies (since January 2023)
• Advisory board. D64 - Zentrum für digitalen Fortschritt e.V. (since January 2023)
• Steering Committee. International Observatory on Information and Democracy (since January 2023) https://informationdemocracy.org/2023/09/15/19-internationally-renowned-experts-join-steering-committee-of-the-international-observatory-on-information-and-democracy/
• Advisory board. Digitalisierungsbeirat Freiburg (from September 2022 until December 2024) https://digital.freiburg.de/neuigkeiten/detail/digitalisierungsbeirat-freiburg-nimmt-arbeit-auf
• Member Expert Group of the Platform Economy Observatory (DG Connect and DG Grows). European Commission (from January 2018 until December 2020)
• Chairwoman Independent commission and co-author of the „Dritter Engagementbericht“. Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (from January 2018 until December 2019) https://www.dritterengagementbericht.de/
• Principal Investigator Quantifizierung und gesellschaftliche Regulierung. Weizenbaum Institute (from September 2017 until September 2022) https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/forschung-aufbauphase/fg18/#page=1&sort=date
• Principal Investigator Demokratie und Digitalisierung. Weizenbaum Institute (from September 2017 until September 2022) https://digidem.weizenbaum-institut.de/
• Spokesperson Digitalisierung und Demokratie. German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (from January 2017 until December 2020) https://www.leopoldina.org/aufgaben/empfehlen-und-beraten/politikberatung-in-deutschland/abgeschlossene-arbeitsgruppen/digitalisierung-und-demokratie
• Advisory board Center for Interdisciplinary Risk and Innovation Analysis (ZIRIUS). University of Stuttgart
• Advisory board Committee on Digitization and Sustainability. Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz, nukleare Sicherheit und Verbraucherschutz
• Member Scientific Commission "Digitized Society". German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• Member German Steering Committee. Internet Governance Forum
• Co-Chair High-Level Executive Committee (HLEC). NETmundial+10 https://netmundial.br/