I'm Alice Hunsberger. Trust & Safety Insider is my weekly rundown on the topics, industry trends and workplace strategies that trust and safety professionals need to know about to do their job.

This week — a little later than usual due to Ben being away — I'm thinking about:

• The arrest of Telegram's CEO and the questions it opens up about personal liability.
• Going "back to school" and why now is a great time to take a step back and work through what's next in your career.

Get in touch if you'd like your questions answered or just want to share your feedback. Here we go! — Alice

Today's edition of T&S Insider is in partnership with Checkstep, the all-in-one Trust & Safety Platform

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Durov and the personal liability problem

The big news in tech this week is that Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the chat app Telegram, was arrested in France. A press release from the the Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris shows that the charges are related to running an online platform in order to enable an illegal transaction, complicity in possessing and distributing CSAM, complicity in drug sales, complicity in organised fraud, and refusal to cooperate with law enforcement, among other charges.

Techdirt has a great writeup on the charges themselves, noting that we don't currently have enough information to know if this is worrying overreach or if Durov was specifically doing something illegal himself. But it comes in the same week that X pulled operations out of Brazil "to protect the safety of our staff" following threats to arrest X's Brazilian legal representative (EiM #260).

These events can also be seen within the emerging narrative in the US to repeal Section 230, and with the Democratic nomination of Kamala Harris, the prosecutor who pressed criminal charges against the top executives of Backpage for being complicit in sex trafficking. (This was problematic as it seems as though Backpage was trying, in good faith, to moderate and to work with law enforcement on the issue.) When you consider that Republican nominee Donald Trump signed an executive order to limit Section 230 while President, it seems that regardless of who wins the election, we can expect continued pressure to increase liability for tech platforms.

There was also a recent proposal by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate that Ofcom, the UK regulator, should have "emergency powers" to compel platforms to follow their content moderation recommendations — which shows an increasing appetite for the government to take an active role in Trust & Safety decisions at private companies.

On one hand, I am of the firm belief that many tech companies can and should be doing more to invest in Trust & Safety teams and initiatives, and I appreciate the work that many people are doing to try to enable this. On the other, it is worrying to see a pattern emerging with the prosecution of tech execs for the criminal activity of their users. Clearly, pressure needs to be put on some CEOs to take T&S seriously, but a distinction needs to be made between the responsibility that tech companies should own, and the responsibility of the criminals themselves (which is exactly what Section 230 does).

Further, it's all well and good to discuss direct government involvement in content moderation decisions when the government has the best interests of it's people at heart, but we cannot forget that there are autocratic regimes and dictatorships out there. Many governments are anti-LGBTQ, anti-women, and anti-democracy. Platforms may be stuck trying to comply with government requests that are counter to one another, and may well end up taking themselves completely out of many countries as X/Twitter did. Additionally, putting more power in the hands of even a well-meaning government opens up the possibility of misuse of that power later on. It's a slippery slope.

If this pattern holds of platforms being held responsible for user criminal activity, we may also see enormous changes in the way that platforms approach content moderation. No one will want to be responsible for T&S if being arrested is in the cards (it's frankly completely terrifying to me, as a T&S exec myself!) and unfortunately, I don't think we'll see thoughtful, nuanced updates. Platforms will be incentivised to censor speech with an extremely heavy hand so as not to be held liable. CEOs and shareholders will still demand profits, and my guess is that broad, automated content removal will be the norm. That's what at stake with this Durov case and why it's attracted so much attention.

How to take stock of your work and career (and plan what's next for you)

Even though I haven’t gone “back to school” in 20 years, I still take the time at the end of every August to organise and reset for a new season. This means taking note of what I’m doing at work, how things are going, and whether I need to make any changes. (I prefer doing this thinking in August/ September rather than December/ January because the holiday season is not the best time for me to be thinking clearly about work.) Here's how that looks for me:

Project planning & documentation

My work these days is a mixture of being totally reactive when prospective clients reach out, working on some long-term strategic projects, and doing a lot of writing. This means I have to keep track of a lot of moving pieces, and constantly reprioritise. The first step towards being able to think through your career is to have an objective account of what you are actually doing day-to-day.

• I created a super organised spreadsheet with projects, priorities, updates, and links to further documents. I share it with my managers, and use it as my quarterly to-do list. When the quarter is over, I’ll copy it and make a new one and reprioritise as needed. Here’s a link where you can make a copy and use it yourself.
• If you get overwhelmed with a gazillion things to do, try an Eisenhower matrix.
• I write a physical to-do list in a notebook every few days. When I’ve crossed out most of it or priorities change, I write a new one. This keeps me from getting overwhelmed by the spreadsheet. 
• I use Notion’s Web Clipper to bookmark articles I’m reading. Then I can go back and find them easily later, whether I’m on my phone, work laptop, or personal laptop. (If you didn’t know, I make this public)
• Document, document, document – especially when you’re creating new processes on the fly. This approach to documentation for policy teams really speaks to me, but it’s important no matter what your role is. 

Professional maintenance 

In Trust & Safety especially, I see a lot of people quietly doing critical work in the background. It's important to take some time for "professional maintenance" to ensure your work is recognised. This can be recognition from your boss, from other teams, or more publicly.

• When you check something as “done” on your project planning spreadsheet, take the time to update a brag document. (I make my teams fill out a “week in review” brag doc collectively, so we can all see what each other has been up to, celebrate wins, and easily look back at our progress together). 
• Update your resume with key points from your brag document, even if you’re not job seeking (you’ll thank yourself later). 
• If you’d like to share more publicly, but aren’t sure where to start, take a look at your brag doc as a starting place. There are almost certainly people who are a year or two behind you in their careers who would love some pointers from someone who has done what you have. (Be sure to check with your company’s comms team if they’re especially sensitive about what can be shared). 
• Keep track of any public speaking, blog posts, or other things that you’ve worked on. It’s often a good idea to save copies yourself, in case any posts come down or get changed later. You can create a professional website for this, or just save things in a folder. (Here’s how I do it.)
• Take some time to reconnect with people, or make new connections. (Here's my ultimate guide to networking).

Look to what's next

Life has seasons, and there are times when you’ll really want to lean into your career, and others when you’ll want to step back a bit and focus on other things. Don’t get too wrapped up in what other people are doing, and instead work towards what’s right for you.

I created a brand new career template in Notion to help you think through:

1. What you love to do
2. What you’re uniquely good at
3. What’s in demand and/or difficult for hiring managers to find, and 
4. What the intersection of those things might look like

To use the template, click the "duplicate" icon on the top right to make a copy.

I used a process like this when I was figuring out what to do next in my career, and I found it really helpful. I'd love to know if you give this a try, and how it goes for you.

Also worth reading

No one's ready for this (The Verge)
Why? "Our basic assumptions about photos capturing reality are about to go up in smoke."

Tech Coalition expanding Lantern to Financial Sector (Tech Coalition)
Why? Project Lantern (a Child Safety signal sharing program) is expanding to include Western Union and Block — a very cool development in stopping financial sextortion.

Related: The Tech Coalition also just announced a new guide as part of their Pathways program, "How to Start an Online Child Safety Program".

There's a better way to teach digital citizenship (Education Week)
Why? Hard not to agree with the idea that we need to talk to kids about data protection, platform values, algorithmic bias, and more. "Curriculum should amount to more than lectures on responsible online behavior". Yes!