John Albert

John Albert is an associate researcher at the DSA Research Network and contributor to the DSA Observatory at the University of Amsterdam‘s Institute for Information Law. His work focuses on the practical implementation and enforcement of the Digital Services Act (DSA)’s risk management framework, including new transparency and data sharing obligations for the largest online platforms and search engines.

Previously, he worked at AlgorithmWatch, a nonprofit watchdog based in Berlin and Zürich, where he advocated for civil society perspectives in public debates and supported the European framework for platform accountability and risk oversight. Prior to that, he was a research fellow at the Hertie School Centre for Digital Governance, where he earned a master’s degree in public policy in 2021.

John holds an additional master’s from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he graduated in 2014. Early in his career, he worked as a video journalist in McClatchy’s Wichita newsroom, covering local news and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He later transitioned to producing branded content amid the media industry’s ‘pivot to video,’ learning firsthand how the platform economy impacted the news business.