IGF 2023 Open Forum #129 Unlocking Trust and Safety to Preserve the Open Internet

With billions of people across the globe logging on each day, the “trust and safety” field is rapidly growing as a key enabler for digital citizens’ ability to connect and interact within each other—within and across borders. This session will bring diverse stakeholders together to discuss how the Digital Trust and Safety Partnership’s best practices and assessment processes are driving transparency and accountability when it comes to platform governance. This event is an opportunity to hear directly from diverse stakeholders about how to strengthen such work. The DTSP Best Practices Framework marks the first ever attempt to articulate current industry efforts to address online Content- and Conduct-Related Risks. The Practices Framework focuses on considerations in the development, governance, enforcement, improvement, and clear documentation of digital products and services. However, DTSP goes beyond merely setting best practices; the wide variety of platforms that make up its membership go through an independent third-party led audit/assessment process to measure the maturity of these best practices. These are salient matters at a time when the Internet policy community is grappling with questions about the relationship between growing appetite for national-level regulations and the preservation of the open, global Internet. The DTSP offers a model for platform accountability at a global scale, built on the foundation of the open, interoperable internet. The aim of this open forum is to seek feedback from the global Internet community about the trust and safety best practices and third party audit/assessment models. For example, are they sufficient in capturing growing social and policy interest in internet safety? What is missing, and how should the best practices evolve to keep apace with emerging change, regulatory trends, and threats to the open Internet? How can we build on such work to address regulatory interest in safety and risk mitigations? And, what role can cross-industry best practices, norms, and principles play in broader policy conversations when it comes to promoting safety, voice, and the open Internet?

We have been conducting remote and hybrid engagements since DTSP has been founded. We have good knowledge of which platforms IGF uses for remote participation. Members of our team are well versed on technical aspect of facilitating remote participation and we have volunteered in the past to remote moderate sessions and have a good understanding of remote participation best practices. To have the most engaging session, we will ask all the participants in person to connect to the virtual room and ask their questions in the virtual room and interact with the online participants. We will also use platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter to brief the community about the session before, during and after the meeting. When publicizing the event we will ensure that the hybrid nature of the open forum is highlighted and people can easily access the link to remote participation and brief them on the process to register online for IGF. We will also attend the training sessions IGF provides.