Esra'a Al Shafei is the founder and executive director of Majal (formerly Mideast Youth), an online network of platforms that amplify underrepresented voices in the MENA region. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Social Media. She is also a senior TED Fellow, an Echoing Green fellow, and has been referred to by CNN reporter George Webster as "An outspoken defender of free speech". Al-Shafei is a recipient of the Berkman Award for Internet Innovation from Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School in 2008 for "outstanding contributions to the internet and its impact on society." In 2012, she received a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellowship for her work on the open source platform CrowdVoice.org.[10] She is also the recipient of the Monaco Media Prize, which acknowledges innovative uses of media for the betterment of humanity. In 2014, she was featured in Forbes' "30 Under 30" list of social entrepreneurs making an impact in the world. The World Economic Forum listed her as one of "15 Women Changing the World in 2015.