Trust & Safety

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

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.

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 3, 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.