Isabel Linzer is a Policy Analyst on CDT’s Elections & Democracy team where she contributes expertise in human rights, democratic backsliding and authoritarianism, and technology to CDT’s research and policy work. Her portfolio includes information resilience, AI and elections, and international democracy and elections work.
Prior to joining CDT, Isabel was a researcher at Freedom House, where she led Election Watch for the Digital Age, a project tracking the intersection of elections, the internet, and human rights around the world. She also coordinated research for Freedom in the World and Freedom on the Net, the organization’s annual reports on political rights and civil liberties and on internet freedom, respectively. At Freedom House, Isabel played a key role in establishing transnational repression as a new research and public policy field, co-authoring reports on digital and physical attacks by governments against their nationals overseas. She has previously worked with the technology and human rights team at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and with UN special procedures. Isabel’s interest in election work in part stems from her role coordinating the delegation for the National Democratic Institute’s observation mission to Liberia’s 2017 presidential election.
Isabel’s writing has been published in The Washington Post, Slate, Just Security, and Foreign Affairs, among other leading outlets. She holds a Masters in Public Policy from the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts in Government and French from Wesleyan University.
When the Algorithmic Odds are Not in your Favor: Algorithmic Poisoning and the 2026 U.S. Midterms
As the 2026 midterms approach, policymakers, election officials, and AI developers and deployers share responsibility for understanding how algorithmic poisoning operates and taking concrete steps to reduce its impact.
Response to the OHCHR’s Call for Inputs on Protection of Human Rights Defenders in the Digital Age
CDT and CDT Europe welcome the opportunity to provide input into OHCHR’s drafting process of the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights pursuant to HRC resolution 58/23 on “Human rights defenders and new and emerging technologies: protecting human rights defenders, including women human rights defenders, in the digital age”.
Countdown to the Midterms: Reexamining Foreign Influence in 2020 Elections
“No indications that any foreign actor attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 US elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results.”
Countdown to the Midterms: Social Media Platform Policies and the Information Environment
The 2026 midterm elections will take place in a materially different information environment than recent election cycles; one marked by reduced reliance on traditional fact-checking, evolving creator and monetization frameworks, expanded latitude for hateful speech, and diminished transparency.
