Professor Jeffrey Omari’s essay, “Taking Aim at Fake News: Brazil’s Legislative agenda for Online Democracy” was accepted for publication by the Saint Louis University Law Review. In his essay, Professor Omari employs Brazil’s model for internet governance to expose the complex challenges that pro-democracy internet laws face in tackling online disinformation. He suggests coupling such internet laws with the digital tools necessary for newly enfranchised internet users to successfully navigate the world of online disinformation. Earlier this month, he presented this paper to the faculty of Drake Law School as a part of their faculty speaker series.
Professor Omari joined the NIU Law faculty in 2020 and teaches in the areas of constitutional law, privacy law, business associations and torts. He joins NIU Law with a rich interdisciplinary background; his research sits at the intersection of law, technology, and social science. His current work examines internet governance through the lens of Brazil’s cyber law, the Marco Civil da Internet (MCI). Through its promotion of internet access as a civil right, protection of net neutrality, and its call for openness in the online realm, the MCI seeks to foster democratic internet governance in Brazil. Professor Omari spent 18 months in the country conducting ethnographic fieldwork in two contrasting locations: the favelas (informal, low-income communities) of Rio de Janeiro and in Brazil’s top law school, Fundação Getúlio Vargas Direito.
Professor Omari was formerly the Visiting Assistant Professor in the Center for Civil and Human Rights at Gonzaga University School of Law. He was also formerly a Law and Social Science Doctoral Fellow at the American Bar Foundation. Before pursuing his Ph.D., he practiced entertainment law in Atlanta and Los Angeles. Professor Omari has published articles in the areas of internet governance and music law. He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, a Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from Morehouse College.
