Key Trust and Safety Challenges 2024

Building a modern and impactful Trust and Safety framework in today’s digital landscape poses multifaceted challenges for social media platforms and digital services that continually expand and attract increasing numbers of users yearly. This is particularly true as?threats to virtual spaces escalate, legal obligations increase, technology advances rapidly, and visitors expect entirely safe, gratifying and risk-free online experiences, data privacy protection and safeguarding virtual assets?on multiple fronts.

In light of this, a compelling Trust and Safety initiative is necessary to navigate and address the obstacles of such a demanding virtual realm. It is a cornerstone for fostering loyalty among users, catalysing a positive online environment, promoting healthy interactions, and enabling digital services to mitigate risks and enhance their reputation efficiently.

Among the most critical T&S issues that need special attention, apparent prioritisation, and quick addressing are:

1. Higher Vulnerability to Cyber Crimes

It is paramount to understand that the digital realm is a different inclusive space than it used to be a few years ago. With higher accessibility and reacher experience opportunities, virtual life attracts an increasing number of users that vary in honesty levels, ethical values, intentions, and approaches to social norms and legal regulations. Such a broader audience is a source of potentially more unfair practices, violations, unethical or aggressive activities, harassment, cheating, terroristic threats, or diverse organised illicit activities that are financially motivated. In addition, cyber threats nowadays are more persistent, complicated, and of a global nature, often orchestrated by complex entities and increasingly driven by AI capabilities, contributing to more severe damages and consequences than a decade ago. Therefore, more sophisticated, intense, and proactive risk management strategies are necessary to create a healthy environment for everyone, gain user trust and appreciation, and avoid brand harm and legal repercussions.

Cybersecurity Ventures projected global cybercrime damages to reach 8 trillion US dollars in 2023, a 170% increase from 2015. If considered an economy, it would rank as the world’s third-largest one, surpassing all nations except the US and China.

2. Technological Advancement

Another critical issue is the need to stay at the forefront of technological development and carefully adapt T&S to maintain robust and secure operations, meet evolving regulations, and deal with the ever-changing nature of online risks. The anticipated outcomes should focus on improving efficiency, boosting productivity, and enhancing overall user protection. Key innovations worth considering are artificial intelligence, cybersecurity technology, data privacy measures, automated content moderation tools, image and video recognition algorithms, blockchain technology, user authentication solutions, online risk monitoring programs and regulatory compliance software.

Generative AI is an example of a top challenging technology for T&S initiatives. On the one hand, it enables machines to create content, such as text, images, music, audio, and videos, in a human-like way, helping increase efficiency and promote creativity. Nevertheless, in certain instances, the effects of its work can introduce risks in areas such as misinformation, privacy breaches, and security threats. Therefore, when dealing with generative AI in Trust and Safety, it is vital to establish best practices, secure data, and prepare infrastructure, resources, and procedures for monitoring, safety audits, and overall management.

3. A Rise of User-generated Content (UGC)

Accordingly, an increasing number of user-generated content shared by digital enthusiasts is ranked next, spanning various formats, such as text, image, video, podcast, interactive multimedia, etc. While presenting numerous opportunities for websites and brands, such as increased popularity and market success, UGC also introduces risks. The more content is published, the higher the likelihood of severe threats emerging, including abusive behaviours, harassment, offensive speech, online cheating, and other forms of inappropriate information and activities. This necessitates a heightened effort dedicated to next-generation content moderation, employing advanced tools and modern strategies, efficiently balancing technology and human intelligence. Such an undertaking also requires tailoring the content moderation strategy to fit the digital space, considering its rules, profile, user preferences, languages, and cultural backgrounds.

According to Grand View Research, the global market for user-generated content platforms was valued at USD 4.4 billion in 2022, with an expected growth rate of 29.4% from 2023 to 2030. This indicates a rise in diverse UGC formats like text, images, videos, podcasts, and interactive multimedia.

4. Legal Considerations:?

Navigating legal aspects is another big challenge in Trust and Safety, as numerous new regulations have been introduced across regions, shaping the digital landscape and emphasising the importance of online safety on a larger scale. It refers to, for instance, the UK, the European Union, the US, and APAC. Evolving law primarily focuses on enhanced digital privacy and protection, fostering transparency and adapting to changing technologies while holding online platforms accountable for ensuring a safe environment free from virtual abuse.?

Referring to the EU Digital Services Act, some social media companies must submit transparency reports every six months, including information on human moderators, error rates, response times, and resources allocated for illegal content moderation, as stated in Le Monde.

5. Talent Shortage

What else becomes the key T&S obstacle is finding skilled professionals with the right expertise. The increasing demand for Trust and Safety services results in a significant shortage of qualified individuals. This ongoing issue limits organisations' ability to recruit and retain the necessary talent, including specialists in content moderation, legal compliance, T&S infrastructure and solutions, and leadership.

The top required skills for content moderation are, for instance, experience, language proficiency, emotional intelligence, cultural awareness, resilience under pressure, and handling exposure to harmful materials.

Summary

Despite the immense challenges, building a Trust and Safety strategy that efficiently protects brands and users is possible, necessary, and integral for the sustained success of digital services. As the future will hold new responsibilities, capabilities, and obstacles, online businesses must prepare to allocate resources seamlessly, integrate technologies, and adapt processes for effective T&S enhancement, execution, and management.

This is preventable. Below is an example of how digital space would be without solid content moderation. It would become a toxic, chaotic, and hazardous place, with misinformation, false narratives, inappropriate language, and cyberbullying running rampant. This would erode trust, civility, and overall well-being, particularly affecting minorities and vulnerable individuals, causing lasting harm, perpetuating discrimination, and deepening social inequity. How can we visualise such a pessimistic future? These projections are drawn from statistics, illustrating that virtual abuse is constantly increasing. For instance, according to the 2023 Anti-Defamation League (ADL) survey, 52% of respondents reported experiencing online harassment or hate, indicating a 12% increase compared to the previous year. Moreover, in the last year, 51% of teenagers encountered online harassment, marking a significant rise from 36% in 2022, as also reported by the ADL.

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