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“The Internet has fascinated me for as long as I can remember” – 5in10 with Valentina Golunova

Valentina Golunova is an Assistant Professor in Digital Democracy at Maastricht University. Her research lies at the intersection of platform regulation and fundamental rights. Valentina’s PhD thesis addressed the interplay between algorithmic content moderation, the regulation of digital services in the EU, and freedom of expression online. At the moment, Valentina is pursuing research projects on the legal approaches to countering disinformation and strategic litigation in the field of digital rights.

Valentina Golunova. UM Law Portraits 26-3-2024 (Jonathan Vos Photography)

1. How would you explain your research to someone who is not an expert?

In my research, I am exploring the intersection between the rule of law and the EU’s anti-disinformation policy. The stories about how disinformation threatens democracy are increasingly featured in the news. In December 2024, the Constitutional Court of Romania annulled the outcome of the presidential election after Călin Georgescu, a pro-Russian far-right candidate who became popular on TikTok, unexpectedly won in the first round. There was a growing concern about the role of Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, in endorsing the populist AfD party in the recent snap elections to the Bundestag. It is becoming increasingly clear that the EU and its Member States must act to defend the rule of law and electoral integrity from various information threats. However, the measures aimed at tackling disinformation can sometimes do more harm than good. I find it particularly concerning that many EU countries tend to put all the blame on foreign adversaries, such as Russia or China, without recognising the risks stemming from the rise of far-right politics on a domestic level. Another problem lies in the significant responsibility to combat disinformation placed on private entities, such as social media platforms or fact-checking organisations. As they have their own biases, they cannot always objectively detect false or misleading information. My project seeks to make sense of this complicated landscape to determine how different actors can work together to protect the rule of law from disinformation without undermining freedom of communication.

2. What were academic or personal inspirations that led to your current research?

The Internet has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. Growing up in a small town in Siberia, it became my true sanctuary. Having access to information on all topics I could possibly think of, running my small blog and meeting people living thousands of kilometres away from me allowed me to stay engaged with the wider world despite my remote geographic location. After I left my hometown to pursue my studies in Saint Petersburg, my passion for all things digital grew even deeper. During my first year as a student, I came across the story of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who took his own life after facing a potential 35-year prison sentence in the US for downloading journal articles from JSTOR via the MIT network, which left me disturbed and upset. Shortly after that, I was equally shaken by Edward Snowden’s revelations and the erosion of our privacy by large-scale mass surveillance programs. These events even made me change my specialisation from International Relations to Law as I was determined to become a litigator defending digital rights in court. This ambition never materialised as I developed a strong interest in academic research and began working on my first projects dealing with the impact of technology on human rights. I am very grateful to my professors at both Saint Petersburg State University and Tilburg University, where I completed my Master’s in International and European Law, for supporting me in my earliest scholarly endeavours.

3. Which stations of your professional journey were particularly formative to you?

One of my most memorable early professional experiences was an internship at the Russian human rights NGO Citizens Watch. I was responsible for drafting responses to prisoners and consulting them on the prospects of their applications to the European Court of Human Rights. I also conducted research on access to justice in Russia. This experience allowed me to learn about how human rights from a practical standpoint.

The most impactful phase of my career so far has been pursuing my PhD at Maastricht University. It helped me grow not only as an academic but also as a person. When I joined my faculty, I immediately felt at home as I met wonderful colleagues and was lucky to get involved in many interesting research and teaching activities. However, shortly after beginning my PhD trajectory, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. For almost two years, I barely saw my colleagues and students in person, which proved to be a significant setback for me. I am indebted to my supervisors, who have always motivated me to stay committed to my PhD project. It was a great privilege to learn from Prof. Bruno De Witte, one of the most renowned EU law scholars, with whom we always had lively debates on my research topic. I am also very grateful for the guidance of Prof. Marta Pertegás Sender, an expert in private international law, who taught me to think outside the box and approach my project from a global point of view. While planning and executing a four-year project seemed daunting at times, I gained many important life skills, such as processing critical feedback and building and leveraging a network. So, when I finally defended my PhD in April 2024, the degree was just one of the many valuable things I got out of this journey.

4. How are you ‘doing’ research? What are your most important research methods?

I am drawn to interdisciplinary research methods. During my PhD, I used a diverse set of scholarly writings to analyse and critique the use of AI as a means of tackling illegal content online. I have also had the privilege to work alongside political scientists, psychologists, and machine learning experts on topics at the intersection of law and technology. While finding a common language and viewing things from a different perspective is never easy, I find it essential to keep your horizons broad. In my re:constitution project, I engage with literature from different disciplines, ranging from international relations to computer science, as it offers a more comprehensive picture of what threats disinformation actually poses and how the EU could combat it without infringing upon its values.

At the moment, I am also mastering my empirical research method skills. Soon, I will hold my very first round of interviews with female politicians, human rights defenders and other public figures to investigate how false or misleading information targeting them affects their professional and personal life and if EU law offers effective mechanisms against this type of threats.

5. What book, article, film, exhibition or song would you recommend, and why?

I would highly recommend the dystopian novel ‘We’ by the Russian author Eugene Zamyatin. While not as well-known as other literary works in this genre, it brilliantly interrogates the tension between individual liberties and authoritarianism. It was written in 1920 – way ahead of its time. I generally believe that all human rights experts should read dystopian fiction as it offers many important lessons and sometimes even solutions to current problems.


Citation: “The Internet has fascinated me for as long as I can remember” – 5in10 with Valentina Golunova, in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, 13.03.2025, https://trafo.hypotheses.org/55803


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Forum Transregionale Studien (March 13, 2025). “The Internet has fascinated me for as long as I can remember” – 5in10 with Valentina Golunova. TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research. Retrieved March 25, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/13go7


Forum Transregionale Studien

The Berlin-based Forum Transregionale Studien promotes the internationalization of research in the humanities and social sciences. It provides scope for collaboration among researchers with different regional and disciplinary perspectives and appoints researchers from all over the world as Fellows. More...

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