In January 2007 she joined the Journalism and Media Studies Center at the University of Hong Kong, where she remained until January 2009.[7] From February 2009 to January 2010, she conducted research as an Open Society Fellow, funded by George Soros' Open Society Institute.[8] Then in February 2010 she joined Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy where she is a visiting fellow, working on a book about the future of freedom in the Internet age.[9] Regarding the Middle East, MacKinnon wrote that "the Internet empowers people and helps to bring about the peaceful changes associated with the Arab Spring".[10]