Early Warning | Policy & Regulations | Jobs & Careers | T&S FAQs
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T&S Early Warning News
Get ahead of new stories that are impacting the T&S industry.
TikTok’s leaders ask Americans to trust them. Don’t.
Washington Post | July 07, 2022
Company Listed: TikTok
New revelations are intensifying concerns about TikTok, the world’s fastest growing social media app. Critics have long worried that its proliferation exposes millions of Americans to the abuse of their data by the government of China, where its parent company, ByteDance, is based. But because TikTok refuses to fully acknowledge — much less properly address — these concerns, Congress and the U.S. government must take steps to mitigate the risks.
Recent bombshell reporting by BuzzFeed News, based in part on leaked documents about 80 internal corporate meetings, shows that critics’ concerns about the vulnerability of TikTok user data are shared inside TikTok itself. “Everything is seen in China,” said a member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety department in a September 2021 meeting, Buzzfeed reported. This seems to contradict TikTok executives’ previous testimony claiming that Chinese employees’ access to U.S. user data is strictly controlled.
The watchdog fighting to protect children from online sexual abuse
News Centre | July 07, 2022
Company Listed: Social Media
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is a not-for-profit charity independent of government and law enforcement. It has a mission to remove child sexual abuse images from the internet.
This may seem like a depressingly impossible task in the era of encrypted digital communications, but in the 20 years since Vodafone has been supporting the charity’s work, there have been some significant successes, says Michael Tunks, the IWF’s senior policy and public affairs manager.
Social Media Campaign to End the Stigma against Addiction and Mental Illness
EIN News | July 07, 2022
Company Listed: Social Media
There is a close link between addiction and mental illness. In fact, 50% of people struggling with mental illness turn to drugs or alcohol to deal with the difficult-to-manage symptoms of undiagnosed or untreated conditions.
Many people struggle with substance abuse and mental illnesses, including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and other conditions, concurrently. The most commonly abused substances include prescription drugs, street drugs, and alcohol.
Michael Laws Social Media Post Labelled As Racist
Scoop | July 08, 2022
Company Listed: Social Media
Social Justice Aotearoa CEO Jackie Foster has called out The Platform Radio host Michael Laws' social media post “as nothing but racial and separatist comments.
On Wednesday, Michael Laws posted on his Facebook page in response to an article about the removal of name suppression of a person convicted of murdering her daughter.
T&S Policies & Regulations
Regulatory news and policy decisions impacting the T&S ecosystem.
Compare and review T&S Policies for dozens of companies here
Europe faces Facebook blackout
Politico | July 07, 2022
Company Listed: Facebook
Europeans risk seeing social media services Facebook and Instagram shut down this summer, as Ireland's privacy regulator doubled down on its order to stop the firm's data flows to the United States.
The Irish Data Protection Commission on Thursday informed its counterparts in Europe that it will block Facebook-owner Meta from sending user data from Europe to the U.S. The Irish regulator's draft decision cracks down on Meta's last legal resort to transfer large chunks of data to the U.S., after years of fierce court battles between the U.S. tech giant and European privacy activists.
Why lawmakers aren’t buying TikTok’s assurances on China
Washington Post | July 07, 2022
Company Listed: TikTok
Lawmakers are accusing TikTok of misleading Congress and the public about its security practices in light of reports finding that workers in China repeatedly accessed U.S. user data and that the company remains entangled with Beijing-based parent company ByteDance.
On Tuesday, Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — the chair and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee — urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the company engaged in deceptive practices.
Texas Lawmaker Pledges to File Social Media Ban for Minors
The Texan | July 07, 2022
Company Listed: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
A Texas Republican announced he will file a bill to raise the age limit for using social media to 18 when the legislature reconvenes next year.
On Tuesday, State Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco) tweeted, “It’s long past time to recognize the incredible harm social media is doing to the mental health of young Texans. Next session, we put an end to it.
US Sues TikTok after Girls Die Choking Themselves In 'Blackout Challenge'
NDTV | July 08, 2022
Company Listed: TikTok
Video-sharing sensation TikTok is being sued in California after children died while taking part in a "Blackout Challenge" that makes a sport of choking oneself until passing out.
The lawsuit filed in state court in Los Angeles last week accuses TikTok software of "intentionally and repeatedly" pushing the Blackout Challenge that led to the deaths of an eight-year-old girl in Texas and a nine-year-old girl in Wisconsin last year.
The evidence about TikTok feeding user data to Beijing is starting to build
Startup Daily | July 08, 2022
Company Listed: TikTok
Yet social media platforms are some of the world’s most powerful businesses – not least because they can collect massive amounts of user data, and use algorithms to turn the data into actionable knowledge.
Today, TikTok has some of the best algorithms in the business, and a suite of data-collection mechanisms.
T&S Careers & Jobs
T&S jobs posted recently, often within the last 24 hours, looking for top talent.
Check out all the recent T&S job postings here.
Trust & Safety Operations Analyst, Platform Abuse
OpenAI | San Francisco, CA
Posted: July 06, 2022
Have a pragmatic approach to being on an operations and incident response team and can get in the weeds to get stuff done.
Have experience on a trust and safety team and/or have worked closely with policy, content moderation, or security teams.
Have experience in a technical analysis role or have experience with log analysis tools like.
Policy Enforcement Manager, Kids Experiences, Trust and Safety
YouTube | San Bruno, CA
Posted: July 07, 2022
Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience.
4 years of experience in either trust and safety, scaled or sales operations, vendor management, or process/organizational improvement.
Experience with data analysis tools (e.g., R, SQL, dashboards, Tableau, and spreadsheet software).
Experience reviewing online content for policy violation or abuse.
Experience working in children's and/or popular culture media and technology.
Experience with programming and visualization software.
Lead Software Engineer (Backend) - Trust & Safety
Zoom | Washington, DC
Posted: July 07, 2022
Deep analytical skills and the ability to understand both the technical and relationship aspects of “getting things done” at a modern software company.
Functional experience in eCommerece and Online Processes.
Experience with APIs, WebServices (REST or RPC or SOAP-based), Webhooks and reusable components specifically.
BS degree or equivalent in a directly related discipline (CS, Eng, etc.).
8+ years of relevant professional experience.
Hands-on software development experience in Java/Python/C#/C++/equivalent.
Senior Director of Engineering, Trust & Safety
Discord | United States
Posted: July 08, 2022
Deep experience in software engineering and management and manage large teams.
Experience in an established, large-scale consumer product company/business.
Experience with collaboration across teams with complex dependencies.
Experience moving technical or engineering programs from concept to completion and experience explaining the impact using metrics, trade offs, Return on investment, and etc.
Experience shaping technology strategy and accomplishing upon that vision.
Experience with scale with emphasis on Reliability, Efficiency, Scalability.
Artsy | New York, NY
Posted: July 08, 2022
2+ years of experience working in ecommerce, operations, or Trust and Safety.
Experience with investigation, research, and data analysis.
Strong critical thinking and problem solving skills.
The ability to communicate and mediate in escalated and high pressure cases with both internal stakeholders and external parties.
Demonstrated abilities in time management, prioritization, and attention to detail.
Strong communication skills and the ability to speak to both internal stakeholders and external parties.
T&S FAQs
What is T&S?
Great question (and one the industry hasn’t fully agreed upon). Think of Trust & Safety as the organization that protects social media and Big Tech companies and users from online abuse. As long as users are able to generate content online, time has told us that a minority of these users will create content that is offensive, scandalous, fraudulent, disingenuous, misinformative, hateful, spiteful, and harmful. T&S fights this with flexible policies, resilient operations, and informed detections.
Is T&S interesting?
That depends. If you enjoy stopping bad actors and keeping good people safe, then you’ll love T&S. It requires understanding new technologies and staying on top of breaking issues across society and the world. It also pays Big Tech salaries (no coding skills required).
How do you get into T&S?
That’s the tricky part. The short answer is: not easily. Most T&S orgs are part of Big Tech and (as a result) pay extremely well, so jobs are highly competitive. If you don’t know someone in the industry who can help refer you in, then you can learn more about T&S policies, current events, issues, regulations, and jobs at trustsafetyinstitute.com to improve your hiring chances and start doing meaningful work that helps people.