This Article tells the inside story of the rise, spread, and evolution of trust and safety. We bring unique perspectives to this story. One of us (Citron) was on the inside, advising many tech companies over the years on how to create healthy digital environments. The other (Waldman) was on the outside, observing, through field research, how tech companies respond to and translate law into their routines, organizational structures, and practices. Together, these perspectives offer scholars and policymakers unmatched opportunities not just to see what is happening, but to understand it as well.
For decades, U.S. tech companies resisted accountability for user-generated abuse by pointing to their content moderation practices, safety features, and the teams behind them. By the mid-2010s, the biggest social media companies had hundreds of employees (hailing from law, social science, engineering, law enforcement, and other backgrounds) and thousands of contractors working on what came to be known as “trust and safety”.
Trust and safety evolved into a field with its own conferences, journal, and 2,000 plus member professional organization. Of late, however, tech companies have been firing trust and safety personnel, tolerating or worse welcoming more abuse, and removing safety features. The trust and safety field appears to be collapsing or disappearing. But appearances are deceiving. Trust and safety efforts are not collapsing but instead evolving to focus on more on compliance than a holistic approach aimed to secure healthy digital environments. The character of trust and safety is changing. Collaborations pushing for tech safety and accountability have been replaced by paperwork.
- Publication: Emory Law Journal
- Publication Date:8.23.2025