Hossein Derakhshan

Hossein Derakhshan is an Iranian-Canadian author, researcher, and public speaker, known as one of the pioneers of Iranian blogging, podcasting, and technology journalism. He is currently a researcher at King’s College London, where his work focuses on the societal consequences of AI-driven, mass-personalised media consumption. He was previously a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center and the MIT Media Lab, and co-authored Information Disorder, a Council of Europe-commissioned report on the theory and practice of what is commonly known as “fake news”. Derakhshan spent six years in prison in Iran, from 2008 to 2014, because of his writing and digital activism. He has written on Iran, media, technology, and politics for The Guardian, The New York Times, The New Arab, openDemocracy, Die Zeit, Corriere della Sera, Libération, and El País. His broader work focuses on media theory, journalism, platforms, algorithmic culture, information disorder, Iranian politics, and the political consequences of digital technologies.