All articles tagged with #trust and safety
Eric Dane’s GoFundMe for his family has already raised about $349,000 toward a $500,000 goal, as fans and colleagues rally after his ALS-related battles. GoFundMe’s Trust and Safety team says it is reviewing the campaign to ensure funds go to Dane’s family, has contacted the organizer, and is holding donations during the investigation.
A GoFundMe fundraiser titled “In the Honor of Eric Dane” to support the actor’s teenage daughters is under review by GoFundMe’s Trust and Safety team, who are verifying the organizers and whether proceeds will benefit the family. Funds are being held during the review. About 2,700 donors have contributed nearly $300,000 toward a $500,000 goal. The page lists the organizer as “Friends of the Dane Family” with no named beneficiary, raising questions about who will receive the money. Dane’s family has not publicly commented, while notable donors include Sam Levinson and others.
X plans to establish a trust and safety office in Austin, Texas, hiring 100 full-time employees to focus on issues like child sexual exploitation (CSE) and hate speech moderation. This move comes ahead of CEO Linda Yaccarino’s Senate hearing regarding the platform's handling of CSE. The new team will be the first proper trust and safety team since Elon Musk's changes to the platform, and will also address other moderation enforcement issues.
X Corp, owner of Twitter, has cut its global trust and safety staff by 30% and reduced safety engineers by 80% since Elon Musk took over, according to Australia’s eSafety Commission. The commission revealed that X reinstated 6,100 previously banned accounts, including 194 for hateful conduct, without additional scrutiny. This reduction in safety staff combined with banned account holders returning could make the platform more toxic and less safe, risking brand reputation and advertising revenue. X missed deadlines to provide requested information and was fined for failing to explain how it was tackling child sexual exploitation content.
After Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter and rebranding it as X, a report from Australia’s online safety commissioner revealed that 80% of engineers dedicated to trust and safety were fired, along with a third of non-engineering trust and safety employees. The company's trust and safety team was reduced from 4,062 to 2,849, and its full-time content moderation team was halved. Response times to hateful tweets and direct messages have slowed, and X confirmed it had no full-time staff dedicated to hateful conduct issues globally. The commissioner is taking civil action against X for not providing information on dealing with online child sexual abuse, potentially resulting in significant fines.
Del Harvey, the former head of Twitter's trust and safety team, has broken her silence after two years and revealed the challenges and complexities of content moderation on the platform. Harvey discusses her decision-making process and the immense pressure she faced in making difficult choices that could have life-or-death consequences. She also reflects on the evolution of Twitter's trust and safety efforts, from managing spam to handling geopolitical conflicts and the rise of online harassment. Harvey criticizes the lack of resources and tools available for effective content moderation and expresses her bafflement at the decision to downsize the trust and safety team. Despite leaving Twitter, Harvey continues to monitor the platform and remains engaged in community-building activities offline.
Former employees of Meta (formerly Facebook) are capitalizing on the growing demand for trust and safety technologies amid the surge of disinformation and violent content spreading across the internet during conflicts like the Israel-Hamas war. As major tech companies have cut jobs in content moderation and trust and safety, startups founded by ex-Meta staffers are developing technologies to help platforms manage user-generated content effectively. These startups, such as Cove, Cinder, and Sero AI, offer tools and guidelines to combat misinformation, hate speech, and terrorist propaganda. The trust and safety technology market is expected to grow as more platforms recognize the need for greater protection and as new content policy regulations, like the EU's Digital Services Act, come into effect.
Discord, the popular communication platform, is implementing a new warning system and reform movement to address online harms and improve user behavior. The platform, which started as a tool for gamers, has grown to include various communities beyond gaming. Discord's previous three-strikes policy was deemed inadequate, as it levied the same penalty for minor infractions and major violations. The new system aims to educate users and rehabilitate them rather than permanently banning them. It includes in-app messages, detailed information about rule violations, and a streamlined account standing tab. Discord also plans to extend the warning system to group-based harms in servers. The company's trust and safety team is analyzing server metadata and user behavior to diagnose and rehabilitate problematic servers.
Naba Banerjee, the person in charge of Airbnb's worldwide ban on parties, has successfully reduced party reports by 55% between August 2020 and August 2022. Banerjee has implemented various measures, including an anti-party AI system, to combat party "collusion" by users and prevent high-risk reservations. The AI system analyzes factors such as user age, reservation details, and proximity to the listing to determine party risk. Since its global rollout in May, over 320,000 guests have been blocked or redirected from booking attempts on Airbnb. Despite ongoing challenges, Banerjee and her team continue to monitor and adapt the system to stay ahead of party-inclined users.
X, formerly known as Twitter, has announced that owner Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino will jointly oversee the trust and safety team. Musk will be responsible for the product and engineering team, while Yaccarino will oversee other divisions. The trust and safety team, which handles content moderation, has faced criticism for allegedly relaxing content guardrails. X is now searching for a new leader for brand safety and suitability after the previous head of brand safety left the company. These changes come after the resignation of the head of the trust and safety team in June.
Dave Willner, the head of trust and safety at OpenAI, has announced his departure from the company after a year and a half in the role. Willner, who played a key role in operationalizing OpenAI's commitment to safe and responsible AI use, plans to transition to an advisory role and spend more time with his family. OpenAI is now seeking a replacement, and CTO Mira Murati will manage the team on an interim basis. Willner's departure comes at a critical time for AI, as questions about regulation and mitigating harmful impacts continue to arise.
Elon Musk has suggested that Twitter should get rid of the block feature, which is an important tool for trust and safety efforts, and allows users to block someone from following them. Musk argues that blocking public posts makes no sense and that it needs to be deprecated in favor of a stronger form of mute. However, the block feature is an anti-harassment tool to help people avoid having stalkers, abusers, harassers, and the like being able to follow their every word without at least some level of friction. This move by Musk could make Twitter significantly less safe for a large segment of users.
Twitter's head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, has resigned from the company, becoming the latest high-profile departure since Elon Musk acquired the social network in October. Irwin, who oversaw content moderation, is the second head of trust and safety to step down since Musk took over. Twitter has faced criticism for lax protections against harmful content since the billionaire businessman acquired the company for $44bn. Irwin's departure comes as the platform also struggles with technical challenges, mass layoffs, and an exodus of advertisers wary of appearing next to unsuitable content.
Twitter's head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, has resigned from her role at the social media platform after serving for roughly seven months. Irwin declined to provide a reason for her decision. She ran the Twitter team that fought disinformation, removed offensive content, and helped maintain Twitter's platform integrity. Her departure comes at a turbulent time for the social media network, which was grappling with the dissemination of a conservative website's purported documentary on transgender people.
Twitter's head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, has resigned from her role at the social media platform owned by Elon Musk. Irwin served for roughly seven months and declined to provide a reason for her decision. Irwin ran the Twitter team that fought disinformation, removed offensive content, and helped maintain Twitter's platform integrity. Her departure comes at a turbulent time for the social media network, which was grappling with the dissemination of a conservative website's purported documentary on transgender people.