The Global Network Initiative (GNI) is excited about the release of a new, edited volume “Trust, Safety, and the Internet We Share: Multistakeholder Insights.” GNI team members co-wrote two chapters in the volume: Hilary Ross, with co-author Maia Levy Daniel, wrote chapter 11 “Trust and Safety and Human Rights: Bridging the Fields for Better Online Governance” and Jason Pielemeier, with co-author David Sullivan, wrote chapter 25 “Online Safety Regulation: Righting Risks or Risking Rights?” Abstracts of both chapters are below.
These contributions build on GNI’s work to bridge the fields of human rights and trust & safety through workshops and conference sessions, and on an extensive body of work analyzing the rights implications of online safety regulations and advocating for rights-respecting regulatory frameworks.
The edited volume was compiled by the Trust & Safety Foundation, with contributions from a wide range of editors, authors, and reviewers. It includes 27 chapters, with sections on making trust & safety legible, community moderation, the trust & safety ecosystem, insights from Global Majority perspectives, the need for greater support for practitioners, trust & safety in the age of AI, and legal and regulatory perspectives. The work is available open access.
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Abstract of “Trust and Safety and Human Rights: Bridging the Fields for Better Online Governance”
Governing platforms at scale has grown ever more challenging, particularly as online services have become more embedded into people’s lives. In particular, two fields with overlapping goals, yet distinct approaches, have emerged to address this challenge: the more nascent “Trust and Safety” field and the more established field of “Human Rights.” While these fields have different origins and incentives, they complement each other to achieve shared goals of protecting online users from risk and harm. In this chapter—intended for both trust and safety and human rights practitioners working on online governance—we aim to bridge the gap between these two fields to improve their practices and, ultimately, better protect users’ rights. We identify the differences between these two fields, their overlaps and areas for collaboration, and provide practical recommendations.
Abstract of “Online Safety Regulation: Righting Risks or Risking Rights?”
This chapter explores how online safety regulation (OSR) has evolved over the last decade, and the implications it has had for regulated entities, regulated services, and users. We identify three broad approaches to OSR: (1) top-down, outcome-focused; (2) co-regulatory, harm-focused; and (3) co-regulatory, process-focused. Using the international human rights framework as an analytical lens, we unpack each approach using the concepts of legality, legitimacy, necessity, and privacy, with suggestions for how trust and safety teams can operationalize these principles as they consider how best to comply with OSR amid vexing tradeoffs.