Luísa Franco Machado is an award-winning international activist for digital rights and data justice. She is also a technical advisor in data governance and AI policy for international organizations worldwide. Luísa has spent most of their career carrying on policy research at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Sciences Po Paris on the intersection between technology and socio-economic development.

Luísa is a prominent voice advocating for youth participation in policy-making. At the UN General Assembly they publicly evoked the need for greater youth participation in tech policy decisions. Luísa has also co-led key youth negotiations on data ethics at the European Dialogue on Internet Governance, and advanced AI and international development policy research at UN DESA, OECD.AI, and GIZ.

By sharing her research findings in an accessible language on social media, she has reached more than 10 million people with her multilingual content. In 2022, the United Nations recognized her as a global Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in 2023 she made it to the Future Minds 25 Under 25 list.