By Zarine Kharazian, HCDE PhD student
October 2023
In September, I attended the Stanford Trust & Safety conference with the support of HCDE’s PhD Student Conference Travel Assistance. I had the opportunity to give a lightning talk in the session called “Trust & Safety in Search.” My talk summarized a working paper I wrote on government requests to takedown content from Google, relying on data from Google Transparency Reports as well as the Varieties of Democracy project’s Digital Society Survey.
In addition to giving this talk, I had the opportunity to attend a variety of sessions presenting research and insights from professionals working in the Trust & Safety field. One of the unique aspects of this conference was the diverse array of speakers and attendees from across academia, industry, government, and civil society. The talks I attended included cutting-edge research on the challenges of online content moderation at scale, the utility of digital literacy interventions in combating misinformation, and new approaches to academia-industry collaboration. Among academic conferences, this was one of the most policy relevant ones I have attended. Given the conference’s disciplinary breadth, I also enjoyed being exposed to a wide range of methods and thinking from political science, law, and sociology in addition to human-computer interaction and communication.
While the trust & safety field undoubtedly faces emerging risks – both political and technical – in the near future, I was excited to meet so many people committed to making the internet a safer place, as a tool for expression rather than repression.
Give to support HCDE student travel
The Mary B. Coney Endowed Fund, named in honor of Emeritus Professor Mary Coney, supports HCDE students by funding costs associated with travel to conferences and international workshops. Your support of this fund enriches the HCDE student experience and enhances HCDE's influence in the field.