About me

Iptegrity.com is the website of Dr Monica Horten. I am an independent policy advisor: online safety, technology and human rights.  I am proud to have been appointed in 2024 as  an independent expert on the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on online safety and empowerment of content creators and users. 

I advocate for the majority of law-abiding people who use online systems, with the aim of  protecting of their rights to freedom of expression and privacy.  Ordinary individuals  get caught up in the spiky claws of content moderation and online surveillance. Law and policy needs to be written from their perspective,  empowering them to defend themselves, but it also needs to be written with a strong understanding of the technology. I aim to highlight where rule of law applies and how  the system can be improved. I explain where the tech, or the law,  gets it wrong and how it may be put right. 

I  have  a long track record in this policy space. I’ve presented in European Parliament & expert groups, and served as a Council of Europe expert. I have in-depth knowledge of EU policy and institutions - process and procedure. My work addresses legislation, regulatory frameworks, and human rights. I have strong qualitative research skills to support public policy advocacy, combined with an entrepreneurial 'can do' approach. Feedback from others has been that ‘nobody does what you do’ in terms of policy analysis.  I am an experienced  public speaker, and I especially enjoy chairing.

I served on a number of projects for Council of Europe, including in the former Soviet states. I also served as an independent expert on the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on cross-border flow of Internet traffic and Internet freedom.

As an academic researcher, I have a track record in producing empirical studies of current policy issues. I emphasise the use of primary source material and original thinking, and a sound, rigorous methodology. My work is cited in a range of academic journal papers and books. I am the author of several academic papers and three books examining Internet-governance policy (including copyright) from a critical perspective. I have presented my research at universities and policy conferences in Brussels and around Europe.

My book The Closing of the Net (Polity 2016) deals with the power politics and lobbying of the Internet corporations. I have written two other books. A Copyright Masquerade How Corporate Lobbying Threatens Online Freedoms( 2013 Zed Books). The books discusses the politics of copyright enforcement, including the UK's Digital Economy Act and Spain's Ley Sinde, and includes a discussion of the  failed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and  intellectual property politics in the United States, which will be relevant to those interested in the back-story to the  Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).  My other book The Copyright Enforcement Enigma  was (2011 Palgrave Macmillan). 

I  successfully defended my PhD thesis - entitled The Political Battle for Online Content in the European Union - on 7 September 2010, with no corrections I researched my PhD at the University of Westminster Communications and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), where I was a self-funded student. I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Australian National University (ANU), and a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. In 2006, I obtained a Masters Degree with Distinction, in Communications Policy, from the University of Westminster.