Techdirt Podcast Episode 275: The State Of Trust & Safety

from the what's-happening dept

For some reason, a lot of people who get involved in the debate about content moderation still insist that online platforms are "doing nothing" to address problems — but that's simply not true. Platforms are constantly working on trust and safety issues, and at this point many people have developed considerable expertise regarding these unique challenges. One such person is Alex Feerst, former head of Trust & Safety at Medium, who joins us on this weeks episode to clear up some misconceptions and talk about the current state of the trust and safety field.

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Filed Under: alex feerst, content moderation, podcast, trust and safety


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  • icon
    crade (profile), 24 Mar 2021 @ 10:02am

    Maybe but..

    I find interesting the concept that the employees working in these positions are viewed internally as "helper" types.

    This to me reminds me of police officers and politicians.. Basically the trouble I see is that positions of this type are totally the positions that would naturally attract helper types, but they are also the positions that would naturally attract people who want or think they deserve to have and assert power over others, which are, in my mind, the opposite of what you want in those positions.

    In my mind it's not just about getting the right type of people in those positions, but about people knowing that you have the right people in those positions.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    crade (profile), 24 Mar 2021 @ 10:32am

    On transparency...

    I am hopeful or idealistic that obfuscation is a just stopgap tool for moderation just as I see it for tech security and it eventually moderation policy will be solid enough that companies will be able to open about how they do it without worrying about the loopholes being so bad that they will be vastly exploited

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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