Ilana Gasa is a Zimbabwean digital rights researcher, advocate, and youth leader working at the intersection of freedom of expression, artificial intelligence, surveillance, and media resilience. She is the founder of the Digital Defense Blueprint (DDB), a youth-led initiative, and an awardee of the Freedom of Expression (FOX) Fellowship project supported by DW Akademie and Spaces of Solidarity.

Her work through the Digital Defense Blueprint is grounded in participatory research and creative advocacy, including policy research on “Surveillance and the Self” with Policy Lab Africa, the Free2Express public awareness campaign, and ongoing initiatives that promote media freedom, digital safety, and inclusion. Through DDB, she equips young people and women journalists with practical tools to counter misinformation, navigate online harassment, and protect data in increasingly surveilled digital spaces.

She is an Internet Society Early Career Fellow (Alumni), and ITU-certified in Emerging Technologies and Human Rights Online. Ilana is committed to building inclusive, youth-driven, and rights-centered digital futures across Africa.