Trust and Safety and Human Rights: Bridging the Fields for Better Online Governance by Maia Levy Daniel, Hilary Ross :: SSRN

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.