Adam Thierer is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University with the Technology Policy Program. His primary research interests are technology, media, Internet, and free speech policy issues, with a particular focus on online child safety and digital privacy policy issues. 

Thierer has spent almost two decades in the public policy research community. He previously served as president of the Progress & Freedom Foundation, director of Telecommunications Studies at the Cato Institute, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and researcher at the Adam Smith Institute in London.

Thierer is the author or editor of seven books on diverse topics such as media regulation and child safety issues, mass media regulation, Internet governance and jurisdiction, intellectual property, regulation of network industries, and the role of federalism within high-technology markets. He received his BA in journalism and political science at Indiana University and his MA in international business management and trade theory at the University of Maryland.

Thierer has served on several distinguished online safety task forces, including Harvard Law School’s Internet Safety Technical Task Force, a “Blue Ribbon Working Group” on child safety organized by Common Sense Media, the iKeepSafe Coalition, and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Online Safety and Technology Working Group. He is also an advisor to the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Telecom & IT Task Force. In 2008, Thierer received the Family Online Safety Institute’s Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Thierer blogs at The Technology Liberation Front.

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