This is a pivotal moment in the evolution of online spaces.
This is a pivotal moment in the evolution of online spaces.
Risk and harm are set to scale exponentially and may strangle the opportunities generational technologies create. We have a narrow window and opportunity to leverage decades of hard won lessons and invest in reinforcing human dignity and societal resilience globally.
That which occurs offline will occur online, and increasingly there is no choice but to engage with online tools even in a formerly offline space. As the distinction between “real” and “digital” worlds inevitably blurs, we must accept that the digital future—and any trustworthy future web—will reflect all of the complexity and impossibility that would be inherent in understanding and building a trustworthy world offline.
Scaling Trust on the Web, the comprehensive final report of the Task Force for a Trustworthy Future Web, maps systems-level dynamics and gaps that impact the trustworthiness and usefulness of online spaces. It highlights where existing approaches will not adequately meet future needs, particularly given emerging metaversal and generative AI technologies. Most importantly, it identifies immediate interventions that could catalyze safer, more trustworthy online spaces, now and in the future.
We are at a pivotal moment in the evolution of online spaces. A rare combination of regulatory sea change that will transform markets, landmarks in technological development, and newly consolidating expertise can open a window into a new and better future. Risk and harm are currently set to scale and accelerate at an exponential pace, and existing institutions, systems, and market drivers cannot keep pace. Industry will continue to drive rapid changes, but also prove unable or unwilling to solve the core problems at hand. In response, innovations in governance, research, financial, and inclusion models must scale with similar velocity.
While some harms and risks must be accepted as a key principle of protecting the fundamental freedoms that underpin that society, choices made when creating or maintaining online spaces generate risks, harms, and beneficial impacts. These choices are not value neutral, because their resulting products do not enter into neutral societies. Malignancy migrates, and harms are not equally distributed across societies. Marginalized communities suffer disproportionate levels of harm online and off. Online spaces that do not account for that reality consequently scale malignancy and marginalization.
Within industry, decades of “trust and safety” (T&S) practice has developed into a field that can illuminate the complexities of building and operating online spaces. Outside industry, civil society groups, independent researchers, and academics continue to lead the way in building collective understanding of how risks propagate via online platforms—and how products could be constructed to better promote social well-being and to mitigate harms.
The task force comprises forty experts across industry, civil society, academia, and philanthropy. Every task force member brings deep expertise in at least two (and often three or four) of the following areas: policy development, AI, trust and safety, advertising, gaming, civil rights, human rights, law, virtual reality, children’s rights, encryption, information security, community organizing, product design, digital currency, Web3, national security, philanthropy, foreign assistance, and foreign affairs. Task force members were chosen not only for having subject matter expertise, but also for bringing seasoned, nuanced perspectives to profoundly complex challenges. The task force’s findings were enriched by the input of fifteen contributing expert organizations as well as dozens of additional contributing experts.
In addition to broad points of consensus outlined in the report, the task arrived at the following key findings. These findings reflect collective input gathered through task force processes, rather than the individual views of any particular member. Their order of presentation does not reflect any ranking.
- 1 An emerging T&S field creates important new opportunities for collaboration.
- 2 Academia, media, and civil society bring crucial expertise to building better online spaces.
- 3 Protecting healthy online spaces requires protecting the individuals who defend them.
- 4 Learning from mature, adjacent fields will accelerate progress.
- 5 The gaming industry offers unique potential for insights and innovation.
- 6 Existing harms will evolve and new harms will arise as technologies advance.
- 7 Systemic harm is exacerbated by market failures that must be addressed.
- 8 Philanthropies and governments can shape incentives and fill gaps.
The task force urges significant and immediate investments designed to:
- 1 Craft and implement initiatives that target market failures and incentives gaps.
- 2 Accelerate the maturation/professionalization of trust and safety as an independent field.
- 3 Break down knowledge silos and share information and expertise.
- 4 Protect and grow the enabling environment necessary to innovate more trustworthy, useful online spaces.
- 5 Expand investment in proactive, future-facing research and initiatives.
These recommendations reflect collective input gathered through task force processes, rather than the individual views of any particular member. Their order of presentation does not reflect any ranking.
We are on the precipice of a new digital era. Decades of effort from trust and safety practitioners, civil society actors, academics, and policymakers, and other counterparts can now be consolidated to redefine how technology is developed in the twenty-first century. It is our hope that the insights captured in Scaling Trust on the Web galvanize investments in systems-level solutions that reflect the expanding communities dedicated to protecting trust and safety on the web, the trailblazers envisioning the next frontier of digital tools and systems, and the rights holders whose futures are at stake.
