Trust & Safety

Preventing, detecting, and fighting the bad stuff online. Sometimes called Integrity or Quality. Where I've spent my career since 2019.

Scandals At Meta And OpenAI Prove It: Safety Needs Real Independence

Dec 19, 2025

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8 min read

Scandals At Meta And OpenAI Prove It: Safety Needs Real Independence

We can’t trust big tech platforms to make the right safety decisions of their own accord. Back in June, I called on Bluesky to spin off its safety team. To end the year, I generalize the argument. Let’s carve some roast platform beast together, shall we?

Inside My Battles With Google Trust & Safety

Dec 12, 2025

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10 min read

Inside My Battles With Google Trust & Safety

Welcome to the two-week Platformocracy Holiday Party! Today I play the Grinch and share a few anecdotes in which I complain about my difficult relationship with Google Trust and Safety.

Guest Post: A Former Meta Integrity Leader Fights For Transparency

Nov 14, 2025

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7 min read

Guest Post: A Former Meta Integrity Leader Fights For Transparency

Rob Leathern saw fraud and harm up-close at both Meta and Google. Now he’s started a non-profit to shine a light on the dark places. He and I trade newsletters this week.

Nov 7, 2025

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10 min read

Rant: Meta is earning billions from scams and fraud. Their lack of transparency is an insult.

Meta’s newly-revealed carelessness is egregious, but their bullshit response is the Platformocracy at its worst. I am pissed. Welcome to what my coworkers used to call a “Bellack Special.”

If an account is not a person, then you don’t have to treat it with respect

Sep 19, 2025

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8 min read

If an account is not a person, then you don’t have to treat it with respect

Free, anonymous online accounts let bad guys proliferate and platforms pretend we are disposable. Real-world identity requirements could help us reclaim our digital selves.

Can we protect the Internet without revealing our real-world identities?

Sep 12, 2025

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9 min read

Can we protect the Internet without revealing our real-world identities?

Free, anonymous online accounts are a cornerstone of the Internet. Fraud and child safety fears are putting that principle to the test.

Account Terminations Are Easy, But Unjust

Sep 5, 2025

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9 min read

Account Terminations Are Easy, But Unjust

Violate a policy, lose your account. Simple, right? A tactic born to handle mass fraud has ended up hurting real people who are dependent on platforms for community and storage.

Thoughts on Casey Newton and TrustCon: corporate incentives, conflating bad and illegal

Aug 1, 2025

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7 min read

Thoughts on Casey Newton and TrustCon: corporate incentives, conflating bad and illegal

Casey Newton of Platformer wrote about TrustCon and got a lot of feedback. I am adding two things that I think the conversation missed.

Why Is Every Parent I Know Frustrated With Parental Controls?

Jul 25, 2025

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9 min read

Why Is Every Parent I Know Frustrated With Parental Controls?

Platforms offer us features, but we actually need context and customization. Believe it or not, AI could help. Call it Vibe Parenting.

Unchecked Surveillance In The Name Of Safety Is Dangerous

Jul 11, 2025

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6 min read

Unchecked Surveillance In The Name Of Safety Is Dangerous

Online policing could be corrupted and we’d never know.

Reader Mailbag #1: A Role For Blockchain? Plus Ad Fraud Debate And The Small Platform Struggle

Jun 27, 2025

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7 min read

Reader Mailbag #1: A Role For Blockchain? Plus Ad Fraud Debate And The Small Platform Struggle

Current and former luminaries from Harvard, ROOST, and the ad tech world weigh in on my first few weeks.

Cannes Special: How Google’s Ad Spam Secrecy Alienated A Generation Of Creators

Jun 13, 2025

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8 min read

Cannes Special: How Google’s Ad Spam Secrecy Alienated A Generation Of Creators

In its prime, AdSense could give you financial freedom — if you could survive the spam police.

Bluesky trust and safety is too important to be left to Bluesky

Jun 6, 2025

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11 min read

Bluesky trust and safety is too important to be left to Bluesky

Bluesky is open about almost everything, except setting and enforcing their community guidelines. They have an opportunity to lead the Internet forward with a democratic alternative.

Jun 3, 2025

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5 min read

What Is The Platformocracy?

Tech companies just wanted to keep people safe. Now they are unelected governments. What went wrong, and what's next?

Platformocracy Pre-History: Social Media Dumpster Fires

Jun 2, 2025

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8 min read

Platformocracy Pre-History: Social Media Dumpster Fires

In September 2024, I gave a talk at Harvard that foreshadowed this newsletter. Here's a key excerpt.