What TrustCon's agenda says about T&S right now

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, like some of you, I'm at TrustCon, the biggest gathering of T&S professionals in the calendar. In preparation for a busy few days, I've taken a look at the conference agenda and tried to read the tea leaves about what it says about the state of Trust & Safety right now. Also features my top session recommendations.

Get in touch if there's anything I can help with, and please say hi in person if you're in San Francisco. Here we go! — Alice

Today's edition of T&S Insider is in partnership with Checkstep, the AI content moderation solution for Trust & Safety leaders

Guillaume, our CEO, is in San Francisco for TrustCon and is looking forward to attending great sessions and meeting some EiM readers!

Today, he will be speaking at two sessions about online safety regulations (11am) and unlocking cost efficiencies through smarter workflow strategies (2:30pm).

Guillaume loves to talk about GenAI, regulations and AI safety. He'd love to connect with TrustCon attendees eager to have some great conversations over coffee. If you have questions or insights to share, book a meeting with him using the link below.

Have a great conference and time in the Bay!

A conference agenda designed to help you do more with less

More than 1300 attendees. North of 180 sessions. 270-odd speakers. TrustCon's agenda is as vast as it is impressive.

As I went through it last week, I noticed fewer panels and workshops than usual about "nice to have" things like wellness and career support. Instead, the focus was more on tactics, funding, and addressing specific threats. The overwhelming theme seems to be that "everything is moving so fast, let's just focus on immediate needs". In fairness, it was the same at Marketplace Risk earlier this year.

Part of this might be because of the moment we're right now, sandwiched between massive layoffs to many T&S departments, and the giant impending impact that generative AI will have on frontline moderators. Many companies are grappling with big questions about who does what (in-house? outsource? AI?), how they do it and what the downstream implications are of those decisions.

To me, if ever there was a time to think about ourselves and our careers, it should be now. Many folks are having discussions about work-life balance and career development in private, so I'm curious as to why it's not showing up at TrustCon as much. Perhaps it's the age-old thing of it being an event largely supported by employers? Bosses send their staff to conferences like TrustCon for the tangible tactics and takeaways more so than the wellbeing tips.

My panel pick: Breaking the Silence: Marginalized Tech Workers’ Experiences & Community Solidarity - Nadah Feteih, Anika Navaroli, Ayisha Irfan, Naomi Nix, Vaishnavi J. (Monday 22nd July, 14:50 - 15:40)

If the overall theme is one of pragmatism and doing more with less, there are some interesting sub-themes that run throughout the three days:

Responsible use of AI

Everyone is talking about AI, and T&S teams are no exception. TrustCon has a robust offering of AI-related talks and panels, notably including a keynote speech by Dr. Rumman Chowdhury.

Some of the talks are about AI ethics and how to support product teams in launching AI features safely, while others are more practically centred around the use of AI for T&S teams.

My panel pick: Trust & Safety x Responsible AI: Bridging the Gap - Vaishnavi J, Dave Willner, Alex Rosenblatt, Henriette Cramer (Monday 22nd July, 11:10 - 12:00)

Child safety

There is a dedicated child safety track this year, covering everything from regulation, age assurance, moderator wellness, child rights, and victim-centred best practices. The entire track is sponsored by the Tech Coalition — it's unclear if there would have been this many child safety related panels were it not — but it's good to see a focus on such an important aspect of T&S.

My panel pick: “Pay Or Your Life is Ruined”: A Multi-Stakeholder Discussion of the Latest Sextortion Research & Trends – Sean Litton, Tim O'Gorman, Melissa Stroebel, Fallon McNulty, Sean Pierce (Tuesday 23rd July, 16:10 - 17:00)

Practical tips against organised bad actors

Trust & Safety, like cybersecurity, is often a race against organised criminals and n'er-do-wells, so it's logical that much of TrustCon's agenda focuses on timely updates and reports about 'How To Stop The Bad Guys'.

One of those themes this year is election integrity, which no surprise as we're halfway through an extremely busy election year. There are also talks about terrorism and extremism and organised extortion.

My panel pick: Platform Accountability for Elections in the Majority World - Diane Chang, Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, Abigail Adu-Daako, Fadzai Madzingira (Monday 22nd July, 11:10 - 12:00)

Making a business case for T&S

One of the biggest frustrations for T&S leaders is having to fight against the idea that T&S is a cost centre. As the industry evolves, leaders are finding ways to prove ROI, present to executive teams, and create frameworks that everyone can get behind.

My panel pick: What Do We Measure When We Measure Trust & Safety? – Rottem Sagi, Alex Leavitt, Yoel Roth, Samantha Guthrie (Wednesday 24th July, 16:10 - 17:00)

There are also a number of themes that were less prominent than I expected:

• Engineering has only three talks, compared to many more about policy, product, and operations. In my experience, it's rare to find an engineer who is enthusiastic about working in T&S – many end up there because it's where they're assigned, not because it's what they're passionate about.
• Regulation is conspicuously absent, especially given that this is the first year that the Digital Services Act has come into effect. This might be because, at larger companies. the legal team handles regulation and compliance (instead of T&S teams), and smaller companies aren't focused on regulation as they're assuming that the VLOPs will be targeted by regulatory action first.

Going to TrustCon?

Here are some resources to help you make the best of it.

• TrustCon 2024 Pre-Conference Discussion Guide for Trust and Safety Teams
• Matthew Soeth's Safety is Sexy podcast on how to survive a conference
• My ultimate networking guide in partnership with EiM
• Three short resources for first-time speakers at TrustCon from past speakers: me, Marie McCauley, Alicia Blum-Ross.

Here's where you'll find me throughout the week:

Monday

• Pride @ TSPA lunchtime meetup
• Ctrl-Alt-Speech x Modulate dinner (drop me a line if you're free and want to come)

Tuesday

• I'm speaking on the Birds of a Feather panel event — Navigating Emerging Threats in the Age of the DSA — moderated by EiM's very own Ben Whitelaw

Wednesday

• I'm leading the Banishing Burnout workshop with the brilliant Jen Weedon at 11am
• My employer PartnerHero is sponsoring FREE CHAIR MASSAGES from 1-4pm at the wellness room – I'll be around (but promise not to disturb your massage!)
• I'm taking part in the Ctrl-Alt-Speech live recording with Ben Whitelaw, Mike Masnick, and Dona Bellow at 4:10pm. (Fun fact: I introduced Ben and Mike to each other for the first time last year ats TrustCon!)

Finally, it would really mean a lot to me if you participated in The T&S Community Zine Project (Location: Outside of Garden Room B, Lobby Level)

Working in Trust & Safety can be lonely and isolating, but it doesn't have to be that way! In this project, the TrustCon community can share words of support and advice with each other. You can share thoughts that are heartfelt, snarky, practical, hopeful, silly... whatever helps you get through the day might help someone else, too. We'll display your notes at TrustCon, and then compile them into a unique digital and physical zine which the whole Trust & Safety community can access any time they need a pick-me-up.